Anti-racism
The Belleville Park Youth Collective, an organisation of young migrants, has been occupying public buildings
By Thomas Foster
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Thursday 20 March 2025
Issue 2947
Migrants outside the building they were occupying
French police have violently forced out young migrants who had been occupying a cultural centre in Paris to demand housing.
For three months, 450 undocumented young migrants occupied the first floor of the Gaite Lyrique building to escape the streets and winter cold.
Hundreds of people mobilised alongside the Belleville Park Youth Collective to resist the eviction. The government, with the authorisation of Labour-type PS mayor Anne Hidalgo, used serious force to evict the young people.
The police swept in at 5.40am on Tuesday, using tear gas and clubs, arbitrarily arresting and chasing people through the streets and metro stations.
They separated out the young migrants from the local activists to carry out identity checks, tracking people down and questioning them in nearby cafes.
The Belleville Park Youth Collective said, “Nothing about this operation respected the law or the people present.”
The police injured dozens of people and arrested around 50. The Collective attacked the “racism of a system that refuses to integrate us when all we are asking is to live, study, work and be treated as equals”.
The Collective has been carrying out occupations of public buildings since 2023. When young migrants arrive in France, the state abandons them and denies them their rights under the International Convention on the Rights of the Child.
That’s why young migrants have been organising and fighting for their rights. Previous occupations have lasted from a couple of days to months.
Since September 2023, they have won housing for more than 800 people in public gymnasiums provided by the Paris City Council. And they have won over 200 school places for young migrants in more than 20 Parisian secondary schools.
During the occupation, anti-racist activist Kahina told Socialist Worker, “We have a space to speak about French politics.
“We aren’t just here for shelter but to fight racism and the whole French system.”
The City Council “had no propositions and came with no solutions,” Kahina explained. “We invited them to speak at our protests, and they said no. We suggested speaking to the media together and they said no.”
But on the morning of the eviction, Paris mayor Hidalgo appeared on TV saying that “at this stage, it’s the right thing to do”—in reference to the eviction order.
Racists and fascists had harassed the young migrants during most days of the occupation, but they fought back and chased them away each time.
Anti-racist activist Denis Godard told Socialist Worker that it is the “example of migrants organising the resistance and being supported by more and more people”.
“The right wants to break it and attack it as they are challenged by the occupation—that’s the significance,” he said. “Young migrants were at the core of this occupation, organising it and speaking for themselves.
“They were not just talking about their own demands, such as housing and education for young people. They are connecting it to a fight against racism and fascism.”
The Collective added, “Everyone is wondering where the 450 young people who were evicted are going to sleep. Even on the streets we are being hounded without being able to move freely, let alone pitch a tent.
“Over the past three months at the Gaite, we have raised the profile of our struggle and strengthened our network of solidarity.
“We want everyone to be aware of what’s at stake in our struggle. It’s not just about the right to accommodation for unaccompanied minors, it’s about a battle against the far right and its world.”