Paris – Paris Mayor, Anne Hidalgo said on Tuesday that she will build a reception centre and shelter for migrants in the French capital.
She said this was an attempt to prevent makeshift encampments that have cropped up in the city with increasing frequency.
She said at a press conference that some 700 migrants have gathered at the latest such encampment in the Eole gardens in the northern part of central Paris.
Hidalgo described the conditions they were living as unacceptable.
She declined to give a precise figure on the amount of places the centre would offer, and said that she and a team were still evaluating where the site would be located.
She said that the centre would be modelled after a camp near Calais that was installed last winter.
“It would offer counseling and support with translators,’’ Hidalgo said.
She said that she took the decision as person without waiting for the state, saying that not responding to people fleeing war and precarious situations was against French values.
Police have cleared previous encampments around the nearby Stalingrad metro station and La Chapelle, where Hidalgo said approximately 1,600 people had gathered.
Many people are taken to shelters, but the encampments frequently reappear within weeks. (dpa/NAN)
