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WORLD NEWS Saturday 8 July 2017

Paris evacuates nearly 2,800 migrants as arrivals surge

By NICOLAS GARRIGA in hopes of finding unoffi-
ANGELA CHARLTON cial work or to seek asylum.
Associated Press Such unauthorized camps
PARIS (AP) — Paris au- “present serious risks for
thorities evacuated nearly the security and health of
2,800 migrants Friday from their occupants as well as
ever-expanding make- neighborhood residents,”
shift street camps in the Paris police said in a state-
French capital, as Europe ment.
contends with an upsurge About 350 police and
in new arrivals crossing the 100 other officials and aid
Mediterranean. workers took part in Friday’s
In heavy summer heat, operation. Police said
groups of primarily African the migrants will be given
men and a few families “proposals for orientation”
lined up to board buses to other sites scattered
with a mixture of relief and around France where they
apprehension. “We Need can try to seek legal paths
Dignity” read a handwrit- to residency. Some may
ten sign next to a mattress eventually be deported.
stretched across cobble- Arrivals have grown this
stones and surrounded by summer around Europe,
litter. notably as more people
The migrants in the La Cha- are taking the risky sea jour-
pelle neighborhood on ney from Libya. More than Migrants line up as they wait to be evacuated from a makeshift street camp, in Paris, France
Friday, July 7, 2017. Paris authorities are evacuating some 1,500 migrants from a makeshift street
Paris’ northern edge were 2,000 have died. camp as Europe faces an upsurge in new arrivals.
taken to temporary shelters Top European officials have (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
in the Paris region where tried this week to agree on
they will be given medical solutions, notably to help It-
checkups and guidance, aly help cope with the tens
police said. City Hall says it of thousands of people ar-
is the 34th such operation riving on its shores.
in the past two years. European Council Presi-
Tents, sleeping bags and dent Donald Tusk called
rudimentary cardboard Friday for U.N. sanctions
structures housing migrants against migrant smugglers
have sprung up on side- illegally taking people to
walks and boulevards in Europe — notably in Libya,
the area, angering some where lawlessness has al-
residents even as others lowed a lucrative trade in
come to offer food and smuggling African migrants
blankets. northward.
City authorities estimate Austrian Foreign Minister
that dozens of people flee- Sebastian Kurz said that
ing conflict and poverty in would-be migrants should
Africa and the Middle East be stopped at the EU’s out-
pour in daily to Paris. Many er borders and sent back
continue on to the port of to their homelands after
Calais to try to cross to Brit- being rescued and given
ain, but many stay in Paris any care needed. q