As of July, France Terre d’Asile will be in charge of evaluating the age of unaccompanied migrant minors in Paris. The association is taking over the role from the Red Cross, which has managed the evaluation system for six years.
Hundreds of people have been evicted from migrant tent camps in the past 24 hours in what Paris authorities call "sheltering operations." At least two children were among a group forced out of their tents in the latest clearance, activists say.
France is taking its share of Ukrainian refugees with locals in Paris stepping up to help as the refugee crisis escalates. FRANCE 24 met some of those fleeing the war and the Parisians who are helping them navigate the French system at the only "Welcome Ukraine" centre in the French capital.
31-year-old Magdi Masaraa never went to school. After years of exile, this Sudanese has entered a special professional program at the prestigious Parisian institute, Sciences Po. For the student who had "no idea what subtraction was" when he first started school in 2020, the challenge is great. But he is determined to overcome the gap that he believes separates him from his peers.
A plane carrying 184 Afghan civilians landed at Roissy Charles-de-Gaulle airport, near Paris, on Wednesday. A further 180 Afghans touched down on Thursday evening. Didier Leschi, director general of the French Office of Immigration and Integration (OFII), explains to InfoMigrants how these emergency evacuations are organized and what will happen to these refugees now.
At least 12 Afghans have been killed in and around the Kabul airport since Sunday’s Taliban takeover while trying to flee, raising questions of a need for a humanitarian corridor to the country's main exit point. The US says it has airlifted 7,000 people out since Saturday. Meanwhile, G7 foreign ministers have called on the international community to unite in its response to the crisis. Late Thursday, a third French flight of Kabul evacuees since the Taliban took over landed in Paris.
Hundreds of homeless migrants and their supporters set up tents in front of the Paris City Hall on Thursday evening to demand better accommodation. Mostly families from sub-Saharan Africa and unaccompanied minors, they pitched their tents as the bells of the building rang at 8pm.
Many asylum seekers in Europe share similar experiences of spending years on the streets and bouncing between different countries in the European Union, unable to obtain official status and to start rebuilding their lives. InfoMigrants spoke to several migrants who are currently in Paris.
Reza Jafari was only 13 years old when he arrived in France as an unaccompanied minor. Over a decade later, the young Afghan has become a fervent defender of undocumented migrants living on the streets of Paris. He has set his sights on politics and is running as a candidate for The Greens in the upcoming French regional elections .
Ali, a 15-year-old Guinean migrant whom InfoMigrants met at the beginning of the year, admitted that he does not always eat enough. The young man spends his days scouring the various food distribution points in Paris.
480 homeless migrants, including women and children, were given shelter on Thursday evening after they occupied Place de la République in the heart of Paris for several hours.
A new movement in Paris is using slogans pasted onto the walls of Paris buildings to highlight the "dramatic" situation of hundreds of unaccompanied minors who live on the street. "Collages Refugees" was created at the beginning of March 2021.