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Paris, La Courneuve : An update on the struggle of the brutally evicted

Paris, La Courneuve : point sur la lutte des expulsés brutalisés, JULY 2010

Eviction La Courneve, Paris (July 21 2010)

A video of a forced eviction in la Courneuve on July 21, a method introduced by the new prefect. Jean Baptiste Eyraud, the president of Droit au Logement (DAL - Right to Housing Association) is outraged. He says "Dragging women with their babies, I have never seen that! When they are dealing with people in trouble, they must act differently. An intervention like that leaves marks on the minds of children. The adults were scared for them. Then I was taken into custody because I stayed at the scene after the warning from the police. "
DAL, with support from the International Alliance of Inhabitants, requests for relocation of those who were evicted and, as a joined force, demands regularization of undocumented persons.

After Médiapart published some of the particularly shocking scenes of the camp eviction in La Courneuve on Wednesday July 21, " Droit Au logement ", who advocates for these families so that they are fairly accomodated, recalls :

  • 190 adults and 49 children lost their homes when they were evicted by police forces in the early hours of July 9th, without resettlement.
  • In order to stay together and defend their right to housing, they did not get on the buses from city hall to the hotel, which was offered to them for three nights.
  • These people have jobs, often difficult ones. Half of them are French citizens or have a residence permit, the others are applicants for residency.
  • They have been living in la tour Balzac housing for more than a year without a lease, but were paying each month a fee ranging from 500 to 700 Euros. The HLM office of la Seine St. Denis had collected July rent, even though the eviction was already scheduled. They had removed the mailboxes since the winter.

Children : After much discussion on July 18th, the families decided to stay at the camp because they had no hope of being relocated. That being the case, the children stayed with their parents, the police knew that when they intervened.

Injured : Several people were injured, especially women, and an activist (the one whose arms were twisted by a police officer while another one was pulling her by her feet).

Pressure on DAL : DAL's spokesperson Jean Baptiste Eyraud, who was on site with a few of DAL's activists, was arrested at the beginning of the operations and put into custody for "illegal demonstrations ", then released in the evening around 6pm, without court summons. In recent months, whenever DAL has been involved in a camp or protest by the poorly-housed, it is fined for illegal demonstrations, punishable by six months in prison and a fine of 7,500 Euros. It's a new strategy to reduce DAL's silent social movements, after the failure to penalize the use of camp tents for demonstrations.

No Municipal Solidarity : without access to water during the 14 days of camp, refusal to provide shelter in a gymnasium, in spite of the examples given by the mayors of Cachan, Sevran or Fontenay-sous-Bois, a few years ago, who succeeded in relocating (not in the town) those who were evicted.

The results : Negotiations and hotels. The evicted were gradually placed in hotels. The police is always on site. Three meetings took place the day after the facts. The first one was with the Prefect of 93, the others with the Prefect of equal opportunity, the sub prefect of Saint Denis, the representatives, DAL, SOS racisme, CSP 75...

A new meeting will take place on Thursday, it will be for the evicted in la Courneuve at 5:30pm on site. The delegation has been waiting since July 23 for the report of the meeting, which took place on July 22 with the Prefect of 93, in order to find out the State's current intentions.

The police forces have to use force proportionate to the one that they are facing. In this case, it was clearly disproportionate, as they were in front of mothers with children. This police brutality must be discouraged because it also threatens future mobilizations.

DAL, with support from the International Alliance of Inhabitants, requests for relocation of those who were evicted and, as a joined force, demands regularization of undocumented persons.

DAL

Georeferences


The Volunteer translator for housing rights without frontiers of IAI who has collaborated on the translation of this text was:

Anna Syska

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