By: V4 Agency
In a bid to provide accommodation for hundreds of migrants, an NGO has arbitrarily occupied a vacant building on the premises of a kindergarten and barricaded its entrance from inside to block police from entering. Several left-wing politicians have supported the action which, according to the organisers, was aimed at finding a solution to housing migrants.
Pro-migration organisation Utopia 56 is back in action. The NGO staged its last large-scale protest on 23 November, when it helped several hundred migrants put up tents in central Paris’s Place de la Republique in a bid to blackmail the French government. The organisation invited plenty of lawyers, journalists and volunteers to its protest, who first provoked law enforcement officers and then published their on-site recordings as evidence of police violence.
Utopia 56 openly blackmailed authorities by stating that they refuse to leave the square unless promised that accommodation will be provided for 1,000 migrants. , Although police eventually dismantled the makeshift migrant camp, the NGO refused to back down and issued a statement, threatening to stage further protests if their demands were not met.
Cashing in on its promise, the organisation appears to have swung into action again in a spectacular fashion, by housing over two hundred refugees in an arbitrarily occupied kindergarten building in Paris that has been vacant for two years, according to Le Figaro.
Yann Manzi, founder of Utopia 56, stressed that the aim of the unauthorised occupation was not to settle migrants in the kindergarten building, but to draw attention to the problem and force authorities to resolve the issue of refugee placement.
Upon learning of the incident, police went to the scene but were unable to enter the occupied building as its doors had been barricaded from the inside.
Several left-wing politicians were supportive of the action, posting pictures on Twitter after descending on the scene. According to Eric Coquerel, a politician of the France Unbowed (La France Insoumise) party, Utopia 56 is doing what the state should have done.
Deputy Mayor Ian Brossat, who also paid a personal visit by the building, promised to provide accommodation for all refugees and stressed that the Paris city administration had opened two gym halls for this purpose, writes the weekly Valeurs actuelles.
