The mayor of the French city of Nantes, Johanna Rolland, is not receiving enough support from the French authorities in dealing with the influx of migrants, Vincent Ploquin, a member of Accueil Migrants Sans Frontieres (AMSF Nantes Sud), told Sputnik.
“The state is absent, the state is greatly absent. We are very disappointed with the state. The city of Nantes is not doing enough, maybe, but it’s already a lot. Nantes cannot do everything for the state,” Ploquin said.
The AMSF member said that the police wanted the city mayor to order the expulsion of migrants from the streets of Nantes.
“The mayor, who has a strong sense of humanity, refuses the second evacuation … Evacuation is a game. They evacuate people, send them to camps and villages, and they return after, as it happened with Daviais square. It’s inadmissible not to care. It’s dishonest; it’s the position of an ostrich hiding its head in the sand,” Ploquin said.
Earlier on Wednesday, French media reported that the administrative court of Nantes ruled in favor of expulsion of 500 migrants currently occupying the Daviais square in Nantes. The migrants have to be sheltered within 48 hours.
In August, Rolland wrote to French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe asking for the state’s assistance.
Some 600 migrants have been camping in the center of Nantes for months. In July, the police evacuated 450 people occupying the streets, but migrants keep coming back.
On Monday, four non-governmental associations, including La Cimade and La Ligue des Droits de l’Homme (Human Rights League), summoned the regional authorities and the representatives of the French Office for Immigration and Integration (OFII) to the administrative court of Nantes to demand housing and better sanitary facilities for migrants currently sleeping on the streets of Nantes.