Police brutality against refugees in Paris
French police cleared a refugee camp in Paris on Monday evening. Videos circulating on social networks show the police using violence against refugees and journalists and blocking access for local politicians who had come to see what was happening. French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin described the images as shocking. What action should he take now?
This is why witness videos are vital
In the wake of the interior minister's statement, L'Obs hopes that the government will abandon the new security law:
“It's a shame that the unworthy Article 24 of the 'global security' law, which will make it much more difficult to spread images of police at demonstrations, was passed last Friday. A shame, because a formidable lawyer intervened the following Monday evening to deliver a brilliant, clean and impeccable blow to the plans. Who was this lawyer? Gérald Darmanin. ... Will the images that so shocked Darmanin make it clear to the government that France has strayed onto a dangerous path? ... We can only hope that the chaos at the Place de la République on Monday 23 November will make it reconsider.”
End this inhumane treatment
It's high time someone at the top put an end to France's disgraceful treatment of refugees, the Paris correspondent of the taz, Christine Longin, demands:
“It is not enough when even the famously hard-hitting Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin expresses his shock at the images. He must put an end to the police violence which has gone unchecked for years. And it's high time the government provided accommodation, medical care and sufficient food for the migrants. It was only in July that the European Court of Human Rights excoriated the 'inhumane and degrading living conditions' of the asylum seekers in France. This was not the first time that an international organisation denounced the situation of refugees in France. It is high time for the government to intervene.”