Police on Tuesday evacuated hundreds of young migrants from a central Paris theatre they had occupied for months, AFP journalists said.
Police charged the migrants, who had found shelter in the historic Gaite Lyrique venue, with batons as many people gathered outside to protest against the eviction, they said.
Shortly before 6:00 am (0500 GMT) members of the anti-riot CRS police forced their way through cordons that activists had formed to prevent them from entering the venue.
But in chaotic and turbulent scenes police forced their way into the 19th-century theatre, which is famous for performances of opera, operetta and ballet and which had cancelled all performances during the three-month occupation by migrants demanding food and shelter.
Many are underage and asked to be treated as such in their immigration process.
AFP reporters saw some migrants leaving the building carrying personal belongings, with several suitcases and bags left abandoned on the pavement.
Danielle Simonnet, a leftist lawmaker on site to protest against the police action, called it “extremely violent”, telling AFP that officers had “hit and beaten” the migrants, who she said were behaving “peacefully”.
Demonstrators and migrants chanted slogans such as “we are all the children of migrants” as they were surrounded by police in riot gear.
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The eviction came a day after Paris police prefect Laurent Nunez gave the order to clear the building, occupied by up to 450 migrants, mostly from sub-Saharan Africa.
Nunez called the occupation of the theatre a threat to “public order”. He promised that the young migrants would be offered shelter, and that their legal situation would be looked at.
Agents working for the Paris region’s emergency shelter services were on site and talking to migrants, an AFP reporter said.
“I need to go to class at 10:00 am today,” said Adama, who said he was 15 and from Ivory Coast. “I don’t know what to tell my teacher. I need to leave a message saying that I won’t make it.”
He added: “We haven’t killed anybody, we don’t steal. We came here to become integrated.”
The occupation of the Gaite Lyrique began on December 10 with around 200 young migrants.
The theatre cancelled all planned performances a week later, saying it condemned the occupation but also “the inaction by authorities”.
The following months became an illustration of a standoff between left-wing activists fighting for migrant rights, and the far right calling for their expulsion.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
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