Twenty women accompanied by their young children have been camping for a week on Avenue de la République in Bagnolet (Seine-Saint-Denis), opposite the gymnasium from which they were expelled. And wait for shelter. Reportage.
10 a.m., avenue de la République in Bagnolet, a few steps from the ring road. Under a blazing sun, two police officers identify the people who have been camping for a week on the sidewalk at the entrance to the Jean Reneault gymnasium. “They already came by yesterday afternoon and told us that we had 24 hours to leave. But to go where? worries Karidjia, his eyes glued to the officials. We have nowhere to run.” After several months of wandering, this 32-year-old Ivorian landed here a week ago. Since then, she has lived and slept on the floor, surrounded by a shambles of boxes, blankets, toys and flies attracted by food. With her, twenty women and their 28 children. The lucky ones have managed to find abandoned mattresses in the street but they are infested with bedbugs. “It’s not easy, we sleep badly, some have stomach aches, especially the little ones. But it is okayexplains with a smile Afisiata, in her thirties, who wants to praise the solidarity of people in the neighborhood and associations. They bring us food, nappies, baby wipes that we share. And each of us watches over the children.”
Afisiata’s son, Amadou, is two months old and is constantly cuddled in his mother’s arms. Other older toddlers wander along the road dragging their toys. A dangerous environment due to the incessant traffic day and night. Yesterday, the town hall of Bagnolet had studs installed to protect them.
“To avoid a tragedy, the gymnasium guard preferred to confiscate all the scooters and bicycles. Behind his padlocked gate, the man says he is helpless. “The only thing I can do is let them in to go to the bathroom and shower. This is the minimum, allow them to stay clean. It is a question of humanism. The children have nothing to do with it. When I see them, I think of mine, I wouldn’t want that for them.” An observation shared by a local resident who came to bring a bottle of water. “The neighborhood suffers from this situation, but we deal with it. It’s awful. » A tourist who seems lost calls out to them. “I’m German, of Ethiopian descent. I have never seen that in my country. My heart bleeds seeing these women and children on the sidewalk. How it is possible ?”
All these women of African origin come from the camp on rue l’Epine in Bagnolet where 317 people were counted in July. Three weeks ago, the prefecture of Seine-Saint-Denis evacuated him and directed the migrants to gymnasiums in Lilas, Clichy-sous-Bois and Bagnolet. Before making them accommodation proposals on August 4: in Nice, Lyon, Libourne, Besançon or Toulouse. “When we arrived in Reims, people told us that in fact, they could not accommodate us because we were not asylum seekers, explains one of the women who prefers to remain anonymous. They wanted to give us money to go back home. But I can not. I come from Guinea-Conakry and if I go back there, I will be killed by my family because I refused a forced marriage.” Voluntary returns for money as reported by several of the women who preferred to return to this piece of Bagnolet bitumen. Others simply refused to board the buses. This is the case of Barakyssa, 37 years old. “I was offered to go to Nice but I didn’t want to because my children go to school in Ile-de-France. And my husband works here even though he has no papers. I didn’t want to leave him. Since then, I continue to call 115 several times a day but often, it does not answer.
Faced with this blocking situation, the city of Bagnolet seems powerless and indicates that only the Prefecture of Seine-Saint-Denis is competent in the shelter of these populations in a situation of great vulnerability. For its part, the Prefecture claims to be looking for new sheltering solutions, due to the dangerousness of the road and the deplorable sanitary conditions. “In the meantime, there is a health emergency. There are women who are breaking down psychologically, some are sick. There are tensions between them. We feel enormous distress”alarmed Alma Bashir, president of the Charity Concept association, which brings them breakfast every morning.
With 25 other associations, she launched a petition which collected more than 700 signatures to request the reopening of the Jean Reneault gymnasium, for lack of anything better.