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Paris wants humanitarian camp to welcome refugees

Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo has expressed her desire to see a humanitarian camp set up in the French capital to replace makeshift camps that have been shut down for health reasons.

A child rides a bike in the infamous Calais "jungle", February 2016.
A child rides a bike in the infamous Calais "jungle", February 2016. PHILIPPE HUGUEN / AFP
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The current situation is no longer "tenable" Anne Hidalgo told reporters on Tuesday, as she mapped out her vision for a more humane response to refugees.

"This camp will respect the international norms for migrant and refugee camps and will be on par with those provided by the UN and the HCR [Human Council for Refugees]."

Hidalgo was reacting to the creation of a makeshift camp in the north of Paris, where some 800 people are now living.

She's convinced that if authorities offer a welcoming place for refugees and migrants, it will put an end to sprawling camps such as these, and the infamous "jungle" in the port city of Calais.

“Today, the state is not offering us sufficient means to welcome these people in dignity, so we are going to take matters into our own hands. My team has identified several sites in the north of the city where we can set up a humanitarian camp, with help from NGOs and hopefully from the state as well."

Paris has struggled to cope with the influx of migrants and refugees arriving in the city over the last year or two, with hundreds sleeping in makeshift camps that spring up before being closed by police. 

The mayor wants a humanitarian camp built along the lines of the one at Grande-Synthe near Dunkirk, northern France, which was built to take in refugees from the notorious Jungle camp.

She added that officials were "going into overdrive" in an effort to get the site up and running "within four to six weeks".

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