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French riot police forced their way into a Paris cultural centre at dawn on Tuesday to evict more than 400 young migrants who had occupied the building for three months.
Protesters who had gathered outside the Gaîté Lyrique in the central 3rd arrondissement to attempt to stop the raid were forced back by officers using teargas and riot shields.
Last month, the city’s chief of police, Laurent Nuñez, gave the occupants, many of whom are reported to be unaccompanied minors, until Tuesday to vacate the premises, stating they had no “right or title” to be there.
At 5am on Tuesday about 200 supporters, alerted to an imminent police raid, gathered at the La Gaîté Lyrique, a former theatre turned into a digital arts and modern music venue, an hour before the police and gendarmes arrived.
Léa Balage, an MP for Les Écologistes party who was present, said only a few of the occupiers had remained inside the building. “Most of them had left in the night … but they have no [housing] solution,” she told journalists.
Another MP present, Danielle Simonnet, a member of the Parti de Gauche (Left party) and La France Insoumise (France Unbowed) said the prefecture had proposed to house the squatters in Rouen, 80 miles (130km) north-west of Paris.
Many of the evicted people refused to board buses destined to take them out of the city and several joined the protesters outside. Witnesses said only a handful had agreed to be relocated.
“It’s far from satisfactory for them- above all for those who have hearings in Paris and who are being schooled here,” Simonnet said.
After the building was cleared, the situation remained tense with protesters involved in clashes with police for several hours. By Tuesday afternoon, police vans were still blocking both ends of the pedestrian street to ensure nobody returned while the centre was secured and the damage inside assessed.
The seven-story building whose facade dates back to 1862, opened in 2011 after a three-and-a-half year renovation. It has three performance venues, exhibition spaces, a resource centre that serves as a library and where workshops and educational courses re held, a video gaming area, artist exhibition spaces, and a shop.
The centre cancelled its artistic programme in December and accused the city authorities and government of inaction. The occupation had become a political football between the city and state authorities over who was responsible.
On Tuesday, David Robert, a spokesperson for the Gaîté Lyrique, said: “As a citizen I can’t be happy that it appears most of the youngsters will sleep in the street this evening.”
“We suffered this occupation but as a cultural and social organisation it was not our responsibility to put people in the street in the middle of winter amid subzero temperatures.
“We asked for an evacuation along with dignified conditions for these people which seemed essential,” Robert told BFMTV.
