To combat the coronavirus pandemic, many European countries have gone into lockdown. People can no longer move around freely, and many administrative services have been significantly reduced. How is this affecting asylum seekers in Italy, Germany and other countries across Europe? InfoMigrants asked its Facebook users.
The community center in the French village of Cloître-Saint-Thégonnec in Brittany serves as an “alternative school” for migrants and asylum seekers. The students at the center learn everything from French, mathematics and science to the local Celtic language, Breton. The classes, which are offered by volunteers, help the migrants integrate into French society. InfoMigrants went to visit.
A camp in the north of Paris was cleared by French police on Tuesday morning. Police said it was the "last one" to be cleared in the city. The more than 420 residents of the camp were taken to halls and welcome centers around the capital.
Omar, which is not his real name, is from Sudan. When he told his story to InfoMigrants French, he was in an administrative detention center CRA in Rennes, on the point of being expelled. Here the 25-year-old recounts his migratory journey, which was marred by violence and betrayal.
A total of 392 migrants have been relocated to other European countries by request of the Italian government since September. The most recent transfer took place just before the Christmas period on December 20, when 132 migrants were relocated to Germany.
As the western French city of Bordeaux struggles to accommodate its growing migrant population, more and more squats have popped up to keep the city's legal and illegal migrants off the streets. However, since the region appointed Fabienne Buccio as its prefect, an aggressive evacuation campaign has been set in motion; with over 70 squats having been shut down in the past 6 months alone.
Last month, France removed the cash withdrawal function from the ADA card - a special card reserved for asylum seekers in France – and transformed it into an “electronic-payment-only” card. The change has had a huge impact on the card’s users, who say they now struggle to pay for the most basic necessities, and many struggle to pay their rents.
Zuhal Pardis arrived in France in July 2019. She came with the aim of rejoining the father who she hadn’t seen since she was three years old, after he left Afghanistan 18 years ago. Now she has been told by the French authorities that she will be sent to Germany, where she first entered the EU, to seek asylum there.
Getting by as a migrant without papers is certainly hard, and if you become sick it can be much worse, even life threatening. So where can you turn in France when you need medical assistance?
Two unofficial migrants camps in the north of the Paris metropolitan area were evacuated by the police on Thursday, November 7 at dawn. The makeshift camps were situated at Porte de la Chapelle in the north of the French capital. The evacuations affected around 1,600 people, including numerous families who were bused to emergency accommodation.
Over the past few months, authorities in Calais have poured millions of euros into a spectacular project aimed at restoring the city’s image as an attractive tourist destination. The migrant population, meanwhile, has practically been banished from the city center. Food distribution is no longer permitted and camping has become almost impossible. InfoMigrants reports.
In a recent statement, the vice prefect of the northern French city of Dunkirk insisted that none of the near 1,000 migrants who had been forced out of the Grande-Synthe gymnasium in September had set up camp in the nearby woods. Yet when InfoMigrants recently visited the area, dozens of migrants, including children, were sleeping rough under trees, lacking both tents and access to basic sanitary facilities. Meanwhile, the weather is getting colder by the day.