Paris Police have cleared out the Parisian cultural centre La Gaîté Lyrique that was occupied by more than 400 migrants, sparking anger from the Paris Mayor’s Office.
Most of the migrants removed from the premises early on March 18 claimed to be minors.
“We’re not supporting the eviction,” said Léa Filoche, Deputy Mayor of Paris responsible for solidarity and emergency accommodation.
“For several months we have been asking for urgent care for the young people at the Gaîté Lyrique, for shelter operations to put a roof over their heads as a matter of urgency because we are in humanitarian situations,” she added.
Filoche criticised the manner in which the State handled the situation, saying: “It’s embarrassing that it’s come to this.”
“We haven’t had a response from the government for over three months and now they’re taking the decision to evict without any solution for the young people at the Gaîté Lyrique,” she added.
Intervention des forces de l’ordre à l'extérieur de la Gaîté Lyrique avant le début des opérations d’évacuation. pic.twitter.com/s5x6S7G84f
— CLPRESS / Agence de presse (@CLPRESSFR) March 18, 2025
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said: “On this issue of immigration, we must not hide the problem but we must also support the local authorities, who are in the front line, not in terms of competence but in terms of welcoming immigrants.”
She agreed, though, that the eviction was “necessary.”
The police action followed an order from the Prefect of Paris, Laurent Nunez, on March 17.
The text demanded the “occupants of the Gaîté Lyrique without right or title to leave the premises by Tuesday [March 18]”, otherwise they would be “evicted by the police” if they decided to remain within the confines of the cultural venue.
In response to a call on social media from Belleville Park Collective to protect the migrants involved, a crowd gathered outside the venue to protest against the eviction.
Nunez had cited a “disturbance to public order” as justification for the eviction and promised that the young migrants affected would be offered accommodation and that their administrative situation would be examined.
The prefecture did offer them alternative premises, but outside Paris in Rouen and most of them refused.
Human Rights collective Utopia 56 condemned the police action.
“This morning, police officers pushed, gassed, and beat people as they evicted 450 unaccompanied minors who had taken refuge in the Gaîté Lyrique in Paris,” it said.
Radical Left-wing MP from La France Insoumise said the eviction was “a shame”.
The action followed a statement published on February 26 from La Gaité Lyrique asking the State to help officials there to control the situation.
“After 79 days of occupation by the Belleville Park Youth Collective, who now number more than 440 occupants, La Gaîté Lyrique believes it is no longer capable of managing, maintaining and operating its building,” it read.
“On February 21, 446 occupants were counted in the facility. The situation in the building is at a tipping point, with untenable overcrowded resulting in increasingly severe and frequent violence,” it added.
France’s centrist Prime Minister François Bayrou has spoken of what he said was growing unease among citizens about the influx of migrants to the country. https://t.co/orqDcBme9Y
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) January 28, 2025
