France to open first Paris refugee camp by mid-October

By Hajer M'tiri

PARIS

France will open two temporary refugee centers in the capital by mid-October in a bid to crackdown on makeshift camps, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo announced Tuesday.

The two new camps will provide shelter for more than 1,000 people who will only be allowed to stay temporarily for “between five and ten days”.

Hidalgo told a news conference the two centers cost 6.5 million euros ($7.2 million) with the Paris municipal authorities covering 80 percent of the expense.

"This is a humanitarian responsibility of the city. We must create new reception facilities to address the current saturated situation," Hidalgo said.

One camp will be built for men -- with an initial capacity of 400 -- at an old railway site in the north of Paris close to the Gare du Nord Eurostar rail hub.

A second one for women and children will be opened in Ivry-sur-Seine to the southeast of Paris.

The Paris mayor first announced the camps in May and said they would be built in accordance with international UN standards.

Tuesday’s announcement comes as yet another makeshift camp housing several hundred people in northern Paris' 19th arrondissement was dismantled by police.

Elsewhere, an empty building in Forges-les-Bains, Essonne -- set to open its doors in October to house 90 refugees -- caught fire early Tuesday morning. Police have launched an investigation.

Paris previously closed two unofficial camps set up by charities last year.

The French capital is considered a transit point for thousands of migrants and refugees who try to reach the northern port of Calais, from where they try to cross to the U.K.