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Forced Evictions of Paris Slum Leave 200 Roma Residents Homeless

French authorities say they evicted hundreds of Roma residents on Tuesday for safety reasons. But community supporters say few longterm solutions have been found.
Photo by VICE News

Tuesday morning, 6am. Mihaiela Cirpaciu is ready to go. The young woman exits the slum holding hands with her daughter. She pushes a shopping cart piled high with suitcases that are filled with blankets and clothes. She joins the dozen or so residents of the Roma settlement on Rue des Coquetiers, in the Paris suburb of Bobigny, as they wait for the police in the autumn cold. Joining them this morning are several activists and members of Roma support groups.

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Mihaiela Cirpaciu on Tuesday morning. All photos by Étienne Rouillon et Mélodie Bouchaud.

The Roma residents, who originate mostly from Romania or Bulgaria, were eventually evicted around midday, in the pouring rain. They had been warned the night before by the Seine-Saint-Denis prefecture that the camp would be evacuated "within 48 hours." No further details were provided. Many of the occupants had already left when the police arrived. While adequate housing has been provided to some families, many residents have ended up in hotels and hostels in and around Paris.

The entrance to the settlement on Tuesday afternoon. All photos by Étienne Rouillon et Mélodie Bouchaud.

Véronique Decker is the principal at the Marie-Curie elementary school in Bobigny, which many of the Coquetiers children attend. A strong supporter of the Roma cause, Decker was present at the site since dawn. "The children will have to sleep outside, and they're so very young. One of them is barely a month old," she told VICE News.

Véronique Decker. All photos by Étienne Rouillon et Mélodie Bouchaud.

The organizations present maintain that all children from the Coquetiers settlement are currently enrolled in school. They fear that this eviction will further marginalize these young Roma.

The slum, which was established in 2008, has no access to running water or electricity. Only two toilets are shared between the hundred or so families that live there. The unsanitary conditions came under scrutiny last year when a seven-year-old girl called Melisa perished in a fire.

The area around the settlement. All photos by Étienne Rouillon et Mélodie Bouchaud.

Nityananda Doressamy, administrative director of Bobigny city council, told VICE News how this tragic event had prompted the decision to close down the settlement: "There is an issue of safety on this site, which puts residents in harm's way. It is the mayor's responsibility to protect them."

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The eviction was authorized by a municipal decree issued by newly elected mayor Stéphane De Paoli. De Paoli, who is a member of the French centrist UDI party, issued the decree citing insalubrious living conditions. Two interim orders to block the ruling had already been rejected, the last one in August. Residents have been living since then under the looming threat of permanent eviction.

Activists and residents of the Rue des Coquetiers gathered on Monday outside the prefecture offices demanding appropriate rehousing solutions for each of the families, only a handful of which have obtained public housing in the region. Later that day, Adoma — an organization which manages hostel housing for migrants and refugees — informed residents of their assigned relocation.

Andrew Caizzi, from Romeurope 93, a collective focused on the defense of Roma rights, told VICE News that closing down the site was not the solution: "We're not defending the slum itself… but we ask that, until longterm solutions are found, the slum be made livable. We want it to remain open as a temporary situation." He criticized the eviction, which he called "hasty" and "irresponsible."

Residents block the road to protest against their eviction. All photos by Étienne Rouillon et Mélodie Bouchaud.

Didier Leschi, the prefect's delegate for equal opportunities in Seine-Saint-Denis, maintains that the eviction was not rushed through. Speaking to French newspaper Libération, he claimed to have mobilized "considerable logistical and budgetary resources" to undertake the "social assessment" ordered by a circular issued on August 26, 2012. The notice stipulated that any eviction should only proceed once rehousing solutions were secured. It also stressed the need for customized family support to stop children from dropping out of school or off the health system radar.

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But according to sources at Libération, residents of the Coquetiers camp were not informed that a social assessment would be undertaken and many of them were absent on the day of the survey. Leschi told the paper that the Roma's "movements" can make it difficult to carry out a census.

Responding to this observation, Decker remarked with a hint of sarcasm that: "It is true that these people have a different way of life. On August 5, some of them were absent. Since their children are schooled, they took the opportunity provided by the school holiday to go and visit their home countries, just like everyone else."

According to Roma supporters, the schooling of children is their only chance of true integration. Geneviève Garrigos, president of Amnesty International France, came to Bobigny on Monday to show her support. She told VICE News: "We are asking that they be rehoused in appropriate accommodation in order for them to maintain links with the school… School attendance is very high, here. Many have received training. They speak French; they want to integrate. We have to fight here, in the Coquetiers camp, in order to advance the situation of the Roma in France."

The options presented to many families on Monday do not guarantee the uninterrupted schooling: housing options in the region are few, and a move to shelters in other French towns such as Belfort, Besançon or Le Havre has been proposed. Such relocations would force the children to leave their school, their teachers, and their friends.

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On Monday the principal brought balls for the children to play with outside the prefecture. "Many Roma children have already had a tough childhood. There is no guarantee that they will find a place in a school that is adapted [to their needs]. So then they'll try and tell us that the Roma refuse to adapt. But the residents of this site are not desocialized; they're not thugs."

Manuel, 15, has been living on Rue des Coquetiers for two years and has been in France since 2002. He lives with his whole family, including nine brothers and sisters, three of whom are married. He is in the ninth grade at a local community college. He told VICE News that he feared losing his mechanical engineering internship if his family is forced to move away.

The adults are scared of losing their jobs. Gabriel, who is 28 and has a three-year-old daughter, has just been offered a permanent contract at the Villepinte exhibition center. He's not attached to his unsanitary living conditions, but he does want to keep his job.

"We have no water in the camp. We can't wash our kids, so when we send them to school, they smell bad. There's no need for us to stay in this shitty situation, but I don't want to go far, otherwise, I'll lose my job and a permanent contract is hard to find."

Gabriel. All photos by Étienne Rouillon et Mélodie Bouchaud.

On Tuesday morning, Gabriel was one of the first to arrive at the settlement. The night before, he had been told that if he sent in his tax forms, he would be given permanent housing in neighboring Montfermeil. In the meantime, he is staying in a hotel. "When I arrived, they were repainting my room," he says, laughing.

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But when we asked him what he was doing outside the settlement this morning, his face clouded. His 44-year-old mother, who also lives in the slum, has no idea what will happen to her or her two sons, aged 10 and 17.

"I think Adoma did good, but I am not going to leave others and my family in the street. I am the eldest, I am responsible [for them]."

After the eviction. All photos by Étienne Rouillon et Mélodie Bouchaud.

Later that afternoon, when it was time for the police to proceed with the eviction, Gabriel and his family had already left. In a last symbolic gesture, the dozen or so evicted Roma families sat in the middle of the road to block off oncoming traffic. They then headed into the center of Paris on the subway, ending up at Place de la République.

"We're going to wait, and we'll probably end up calling 115 [the emergency housing number] to get people housed," Marion Fillonneau, an activist with the European Roma Rights Center (ERRC), told VICE News.

Fillonneau and the ERRC have brought the Coquetiers case before the European Court of Human Rights. She is willing to admit that the proceedings will take time, and will unlikely directly benefit those sleeping rough tonight. Nonetheless, she hopes that if France is convicted of "torture, inhumane and degrading treatment," the Roma's plight will no longer be ignored.

Follow Mélodie Bouchaud on Twitter: @meloboucho

Étienne Rouillon also contributed to this report.