This Friday, December 2, the judge in chambers of the administrative court of Strasbourg orders the mayor Jeanne Barseghian, to evacuate, within three days, the camp of migrants from the place de l’étoile. Reactions from the city, the opposition, associations and the migrants’ lawyer.
In the spring of 2022, migrants settled in the Place de l’Etoile in Strasbourg. From town hall and prefecture return the support. This Friday, December 2, the administrative court orders the town hall to evacuate this camp.
In its statement, the court states that “The judge in chambers considered that the prefect of Bas-Rhin did not have jurisdiction to order this evacuation and that, consequently, it was up to the mayor to proceed.“and he specifies”the judge in chambers orders him to evacuate the camp within three days of notification of his order, cooperating, as necessary, with the services of the State.
For associations, such as the collective “Besides we are from here”, the evacuation must mean “shelter“migrants.”We have been waiting for this for a long time. Currently thehe weather conditions are deteriorating and temperatures are dropping. We ask the city to find them decent accommodation.”
The encampment of the place of the star counted up to two hundred migrants, currently they are less numerous, “it varies between 50 and 100, depending on the day and the weather“explains Tonio Gomez, spokesperson for the mutual aid and solidarity collective (made up of activists from political parties, unions, associations and ordinary citizens.)
According to him, some of them (especially those with children) have left their tents and are at the Meinau gymnasium, made available by the city. Others are hosted by citizens or occupy squats. “A month ago there were 44 children, last Sunday at the breakfast we organized there were fewer.”
These migrants are from Macedonia for some, but they come mainly from different countries of the East.
In its injunction to the mayor, the Court adds “the failure of the mayor of Strasbourg is a serious violation of human dignity.”
The opposition, through the voice of the municipal councilor Pierre Jakubovicz “welcomes this expected decision”. In his eyes, it is up to the mayor to evacuate this unsanitary camp, and adds: “Preventing the care and support of these people in great precariousness and great fragility is at best unconscious, at worst cynical.
For his part, Bruno Studer, deputy of Bas-Rhin and elected by the majority, believes: “This decision rightly places the mayor of Strasbourg in front of her responsibilities and comes to close a debate instrumentalized by the municipal team for months. I also note the severity of the terms with which the judge pronounced this decision. “
The collective meanwhile asked the town hall to open an additional gymnasium, before the police intervention, to avoid a new shock to the migrants who are still there, “it’s traumatic for these people who have crossed many borders. OWe are going to call on citizens and the press to be present, show migrants that we support them, we are not going to create tension, because these people are exhausted by months of life outside in precarious conditions. “
Sophie Schweitzer, the lawyer, says she is humanly worried, because if the gymnasiums prevent people from being on the street at night, they do not offer them decent conditions. “People’s privacy is not respected, family life is not possible there. Other solutions would have to be found, such as the requisition of vacant housing.
This Friday evening, around 7 p.m., the town hall of Strasbourg communicates: “The City of Strasbourg takes note of the decision of the administrative court of Strasbourg concerning the camp located in the Parc de l’Etoile. The community will comply with the court decision, which orders it to evacuate the camp and seize the services of the State to obtain its assistance. The city states in its press release:“This judgment does not rule on the sheltering of the men, women and children present on the site of the Parc de l’Etoile, a question that is nevertheless essential to human dignity.”
No details on the exact moment of this evacuation and where the migrants will then be taken. In the end, everyone, whether associations, elected officials, ordinary citizens, the lawyer in charge of the legal defense of some of the migrants, and the city itself are asking themselves the same question: what will become of these people? Where will they be taken, where, for how long and under what conditions?