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A proposal to set up a welcome centre for newly arrived migrants in Paris’s iconic Bois de Boulogne park has been met with mixed reactions by residents of the upmarket neighbourhood.
Elected representatives of French communist parties PCF and the Left Front proposed on Thursday that the matter be discussed at the Paris Council, a month after the closure of the city’s oversaturated Porte de la Chapelle migrant centre (pictured below).
They’re suggesting the 1,500 evacuated migrants, who are currently being housed in a makeshift camp at Porte de la Villette, be soon rehoused in a much more central and desirable part of the city: Bois de Boulogne park in the 16th arrondissement.
The group has admitted the proposal is a political move aimed at rebalancing the discrepancy in welcome centres between East and West Paris, but they also argue their request is a practical one.