France launches investigation into Paris police after ‘shocking’ clashes at migrant camp

Migrants wait in their tents as hundreds of migrants and refugees evacuated from a makeshift migrant camp in Saint-Denis

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France’s interior minister on Tuesday launched a probe following accusations of a “scandalous” use of excessive force in dispersing a camp pitched by homeless migrants in Paris.

Gérald Darminin, who has a reputation for talking-tough, confessed that images of migrants being kicked and tripped by police as they fled Paris’ Place de la République were “shocking”.

He said he had agreed to instantly refer the incident to the National Police Inspectorate General (IGPN), which investigates officers’ conduct.

President Emmanuel Macron’s government is already facing furore from journalists, opposition politicians and rights groups over a new security bill they say erodes police accountability and reporting freedoms.

Officers on Monday night used tear gas to clear around 500 tents erected to protest against earlier forced evacuations of hundreds of migrants from other camps on the outskirts of the French capital.

Officers on Monday night used tear gas to clear around 500 tents erected

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Last week many had been evacuated from makeshift shelters in the northern suburb of Saint-Denis with some offered no alternative shelter.

The majority of the migrant protesters were from Afghanistan among others from Somalia and Eritrea. Shortly after their arrival, police moved in en masse, tossing them from tents, beating them with batons and chasing them into side streets.

Videos posted on social media show one officer kicking an activist and another tripping a man as he ran.

CFDT trade union chief Laurent Berger told France 2 TV that the actions of the police were “scandalous and astounding.”

“People occupy a square peacefully with tents, simply because they have a housing problem, they are not harming anyone. And there is this intervention which is totally disproportionate,” he said.

The Paris police headquarters said in a statement that the République camp was evacuated because it was illegal, and “invited” the migrants to seek lodging elsewhere offered by the state or aid groups.

The Paris police headquarters said in a statement that the République camp was evacuated because it was illegal

Credit: AFP

But after receiving a report from Paris police chief Didier Lallement confirming “several unacceptable facts”, Mr Darmanin pledged that the IGPN would submit its findings within 48 hours.

In a letter to Mr Darmanin, Paris’ Socialist mayor Anne Hidalgo, who is not in charge of such police operations, slammed the “brutal and disproportionate use of force”.

Left-wing politicians slammed the police action as brutal with far-Left France Unbowed leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon calling it “exceptional savagery”.

The Right was more circumspect, with Republicans MP Robin Reda saying the police were doing their best with the means at their disposal but they were not the cause of the problem.

“How can one allow thousands of undeclared migrants to enter France, flouting our laws and running totally against our capacity to house and integrate them?,” he asked.

Far-Right National Rally leader Marine Le Pen said: “What’s the point of passing a new law to protect police officers if it’s to abandon them collectively at the slightest incident or provocation from the far-Left?”