Last migrant camp shut down in northern Paris

By Cindi Cook

PARIS (AA) - French security forces removed more than 427 people and dismantled 266 tents from an illegal settlement in Porte de la Villette along the Saint-Denis canal early Tuesday in an effort to rid the northern part of Paris of migrants who have settled there.

Police started their operation around 6.00 a.m. local time (1200GMT) and the camp was cleared by 8.00 a.m. (1400GMT).

The migrants, four of whom were women, boarded buses that moved them to reception centers and gymnasiums in the Ile de France region. Nearly all of them were from Eritrea and Somalia.

The camp was shut down following a directive by Interior Minister Christophe Castaner in November to shutter all illegal migrant camps in the city.

"The evacuation at the Porte de la Villette puts an end to camps that pose a sanitary risk for the area and a security risk for both occupants and residents," the Paris police said Tuesday on Twitter.

In a statement last week, Paris police chief Didier Lallement reiterated the need to put an end to the camps, which keep re-establishing themselves.

"We will not repeat an endless cycle of evacuations and relocations," he said.

A major camp was shuttered in Calais in 2016, which gave rise to refugee populations relocating to Paris and setting up on the Boulevard Périphérique on the outskirts of the city.