More than a hundred migrants have moved into a dilapidated building in the northern suburbs of Marseille. Tensions with residents are rising and city officials are worried that there may be an organized crime network at play.
"If you don’t do something about Kalliste Park, it’s going to become Marseille’s very own Calais", wrote Samia Ghali, the senator from the Bouches-du-Rhône region, in a letter addressed January 12 to the relevant French official, the secretary of state under the Ministry of Territorial Cohesion.
Beginning last summer, a group of migrants starting moving into a semi-abandoned apartment building in the Kalliste housing projects in Marseille’s 15th arrondissement.
"There were about a dozen people at first. But each week, more people arrived,” Ghali told InfoMigrants.
Now there are over one hundred people living there.
The decrepit building has been slated for demolition for the last seven years as part of an urban renovation project launched by city hall. Social landlord Marseille Habitat bought the majority of the apartments in the building below market price. However, some people refused to sell their apartments for such low prices, meaning there are currently 13 families living in the building alongside migrants who moved into the empty apartments.
Cohabitation explosive dans les quartiers Nord de Marseille : des migrants en errance ont investi un immeuble insalubre promis à la destruction, où vivent encore 13 familles - @antoinebouthier #AFP pic.twitter.com/2yd3eq07AT
— Agence France-Presse (@afpfr) January 25, 2018
This tweet reads: “Explosive Cohabitation in Marseille’s northern suburbs: homeless migrants move into a dilapidated building, where 13 families are still living- @antoinebouthier #AFP”
According to city hall, there are an estimated 141 migrants living in 39 different apartments. However, it is likely that there are many more as officials weren’t able to visit all the apartments. Most of the migrants are from Nigeria, Sudan and the Ivory Coast.
“We don’t know where to go, but here, at least we can rest a little bit,” a young migrant told French press agency the AFP. “A friend who felt sorry for me told me about this place.”
InfoMigrants called several migrant aid organizations in Marseille, but none of them were able to give any more information about the site.
"You don’t end up in Marseille’s northern suburbs by accident”
But how did these people end up in the Kalliste housing projects?
"You don’t end up in the northern suburbs by accident,” said an employee at city hall in Marseille’s 15ème arrondissement. The employee told InfoMigrants that officials suspect that there is some kind of organized system behind it. "[The migrants] told me that they came from Italy and that smugglers had directed them to the Saint-Charles station (editor’s note: the main station in Marseille).
“They paid money and were directed to Kalliste", Ghali says.
There are some women living in the building. A few of them are pregnant. Others work as prostitutes and wait for clients in front of the elevator, according to both the AFP and Ghali. The presence of prostitutes makes both Ghali and the local city hall suspect there is organized crime at work.
Nous avons au Parc Kallisté, plus de 100 migrants nigérians qui se sont installés dans cette résidence laissés à l'abandon. #GGRMC
— Samia GHALI (@SamiaGhali) January 23, 2018
This tweet reads: In Parc Kallisté, more than 100 Nigerians moved into this abandoned building. #GGRMC
Some women on the migration trail do end up being forced into prostitution to pay their smugglers. This occurs often in Libya.
A few days ago, France 24 interviewed a woman from Nigeria who came to France in 2010 and had to turn to prostitution to pay the people who had smuggled her into the country. "Une fois à Paris, j’ai découvert qu’il fallait que je me prostitue pour payer mes passeurs".
Local residents living around the Kalliste projects are uncomfortable with the developing situation with some even claiming that they live in fear.
"When it gets dark, we don’t go out. We also make sure that there is always someone in the apartment so there’s no risk of squatters moving in,” a local resident named Houda told AFP.
Ghali and other residents also blamed migrants for damaging the building, especially as there is no electricity or heating in these apartments.
“The situation is going to explode,” Ghani said. “We need to move the migrants into adequate facilities and find new homes for the residents.”