Police clear refugees from Paris camp for seventeenth time

The operation swept against the camp-dwellers, who mainly came from Sudan, Eritrea and Afghanistan, at the camp near the Jaurès metro station at dawn.

"The police treatment of the refugees was brutal," said Joseph Paris, a member of the "La Chapelle Debout" collective who was at the scene. "They have used tear gas in the past."

"The police moved at dawn and the press didn't get there until around 10am, but I saw the police getting very frustrated with the refugees because they keep having to repeat the same clearance operations."

Police used bulldozers and other machinery to remove the property from the camp - for the sixteenth time since the beginning of August.

"I saw about 100 police officers, 30 riot vans and a group of representatives from town hall at the scene," said Paris.

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French authorities promised that those moved on from the camp would be treated properly, however there are no official camps open into which to move the refugees.

One Syrian refugee who lives at the camp, but did not want to be named, told the New Arab: "One police officer pushed me to the ground three times this morning, telling me to get out of his country.

"When I told him I was from Syria and I couldn't go home he told me he didn't care and that it was my problem."

The refugee said the police took the refugees to a processing centre where the authorities took his passport details and placed him in a queue for housing, which will likely take a month.

"They just wrote my name down, gave me an appointment and then waved me away," he said.

"I'm going to go back and sleep on the streets again tonight.

"I've been sleeping outside for a month because the authorities don't give you any help here."

Emmanuelle Cosse, the French Housing Minister, told AFP this morning: "There are a lot of families with children, more than usual. They will obviously be looked after."

	Migrants sleeping at the camp near Jaures on September 15 [Getty]

Police previously attempted to clear the camp in a similar operation on August 17. Friday's attempt was understood to be the 20th similar operation this year.

Many of those living at the camp had been sleeping in substandard conditions on mattresses and in tents.

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo told reporters on September 6 that the Parisian authorities would open an official refugee camp to house migrants in mid-October.

Hidalgo said the camp would would operate to United Nations regulations and would provide medical care and counselling.

	Parisian police round up migrants following the camp clearance on the morning of September 16 [Getty]