paris

• France

A floral workshop has been set up in the French capital to help female refugees and other vulnerable women win back their confidence by teaching them the delicate art of flower arrangement. The French charity Du Pain & des Roses (Bread & Roses) runs the workshop once a week in an accommodation center in eastern Paris. For the women attending the workshop, the classes offer a breath of fresh air, and sometimes, the start of a new career. InfoMigrants reports.

• France

Toll-free phone numbers and slashed waiting times for an appointment with asylum application services… Those are just some of the recommendations that Paris’s administrative court on Tuesday handed the French government in a bid to improve the Paris region’s failing migrant services.

• France

After the dismantling of the camps in the north of Paris, the 1,600 migrants – ‘Dubliners’, newcomers, rejected asylum seekers, and even statutory refugees - were sent to some 20 locations in the Paris region, including gymnasiums, situation review centers and a refugee support center. One non-profit group denounced the placement of 16 migrants in retention centers in the wake of the dismantling.

• France

21 African migrants were detained by French police Saturday after they surged into the Pantheon mausoleum in Paris to push their claims for regularized status. The detainees will be held pending investigation into potentially "violating legislation on foreigners," the local prefecture said.

• France

Hundreds of people live in the camps set up at the Porte d'Aubervilliers in the north of Paris. When heat waves hit France, the tents turn into furnaces and life is harder than ever.

• France

A new drop-in center has opened in Paris where migrants sleeping rough can charge their phones, take a shower or do their laundry. The center is open every day and also offers French courses, some healthcare services and legal assistance.

• France

Undocumented migrants and asylum seekers often don’t know that they are entitled to fare reductions. Within the Île-de-France transport system, discounts may be available for them.

• France

A few kilometers from Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport, 240 foreigners are detained in the administrative retention center (CRA) of Mesnil-Amelot, where they will be kept before being deported - or released. When Rachid Temal, a senator and member of the Socialist Party, went to visit the center on Friday, April 26, InfoMigrants went along. Living in constrained conditions and a sometimes tense atmosphere, the undocumented people here count the days before they continue into an uncertain future.

• France

The City of Paris has announced that it is opening the doors of its long-awaited “Refugee House”, an activity center aimed at migrants and refugees, in June. The center will house a library and a café, and offer a host of activities, including computer workshops and conversational French classes.

• France

Whether it’s to keep themselves warm, charge their phones or surf the internet, hundreds of migrants have in the past few years spent much of their days at the library located in the grounds of Paris’ science museum. At the library, they can take French or computer classes for free. InfoMigrants went to visit.

• France

Several times a week, the Midis du Mie collective organizes lunch distributions for unaccompanied foreign minors in the garden on Rue Pali-Kao in the 20th arrondissement of Paris. These meetings draw youth who are dealing with complicated administrative procedures, who sometimes speak little French, and who don’t know anyone in the city. The volunteers of the collective can identify them, guide them, and help the most vulnerable.

• France

Over the last 10 days, in four separate operations, French police have demolished make-shift migrant camps in northern Paris; the operations, say the city authorities, are part of their efforts to bring everyone indoors during the coldest months of the year. But some 800 migrants are thought to still be sleeping rough on the streets and many people are being missed, or ejected by the system.