Police evacuate migrants after months-long occupation of Paris theatre

On March 18, French police cleared hundreds of young migrants who had been occupying the historic Gaîté Lyrique theatre in central Paris for months. The occupation, which began on December 10, had seen the theater turned into a shelter for the young exiles, most of whom were from sub-Saharan Africa.

Many of the migrants are minors who had demanded food, shelter, and to be treated as such in their immigration process, Caliber.Az reports per French media.

The operation, which started shortly before 6 am, was met with resistance from activists who formed a cordon in front of the theater to block the police's entry. Anti-riot CRS police used batons to break through the barricades formed by demonstrators, and scenes inside the theater quickly turned chaotic. Some migrants were seen leaving the venue with personal belongings, while others abandoned their bags and suitcases outside.

The Gaîté Lyrique, a well-known venue for opera, ballet, and operetta performances, had canceled all shows during the three-month occupation. Danielle Simonnet, a left-wing lawmaker present at the scene, condemned the police actions, calling them “extremely violent.” She stated that officers had “hit and beaten” the migrants, who she described as behaving “peacefully.” As police in riot gear surrounded the migrants, demonstrators and some of the exiles chanted slogans such as, “We are all the children of migrants.”

The eviction followed a directive from Paris police prefect Laurent Nuñez, who had ordered the clearance of the theater after it was occupied by as many as 450 young migrants. Nuñez had expressed concerns about the occupation threatening "public order" and promised that the migrants would be provided with shelter while their legal status was examined. Social workers from the Paris region's emergency shelter services were on-site and engaged in discussions with the migrants.

One of the young migrants, Adama, 15, from Côte d'Ivoire, shared his concerns as he prepared to leave the theater. “I need to go to class at 10 am today,” he said, explaining that he would not be able to attend and was unsure of how to inform his teacher. “We haven't killed anybody, we don't steal. We came here to become integrated,” he added.

The Gaîté Lyrique occupation had been a focal point of ongoing tensions between left-wing activists advocating for migrant rights and far-right groups calling for the expulsion of the migrants. The theatre’s management had condemned the occupation but also criticized what it perceived as government inaction in addressing the migrants' needs.

By Vafa Guliyeva