A hundred exiles have been occupying the building of a former nursery in Caen since 2022. The departmental council, owner of the premises, is demanding their departure. This Saturday, June 29, the deadline granted by the courts to the occupants to leave the premises comes to an end, raising fears of eviction.
At the Pouponnière squat, in Caen (Calvados), concern is growing. From this Saturday, June 29, the hundred exiles who are staying in this building on the street d’Auge, near the station, runs the risk of eviction. This was requested by the departmental council, owner of the premises, as soon as the occupants moved in, in November 2022.
Last March, the administrative court of Caen granted the occupants a three-month reprieve, ruling that they could remain there until June 29, the time it took for the school year to end. According to the AG de lutte contre toutes les expulsions, a group of volunteers who support exiles, around forty children live at the Pouponnière.
The place, a large building with outdoor spaces, was home to a children’s home until it moved in May 2022. Now it is home to several families, but also to single adults, most of them from Georgia and Albania. The latter fear the now real possibility of sudden eviction.
Asked by France 3 Normandie, the departmental council has not yet communicated on its rehabilitation projects for the Pouponnière building.
“Where are we going to sleep, what are we going to do?“, asks an Albanian exile, who has lived here for two years with his three children and who wishes to remain anonymous. “Here, the children are calm, they are safe. The children play outside, everything is going well here, but they are worried about the eviction, because it will be soon.“, adds Nesta, who arrived from Georgia with her children in 2017. She describes: “Il there are a lot of children living there. Single women, with many children. Single men, too“.
Inside the old nursery building in Caen (Calvados), occupied since 2022 by around a hundred exiles. Here, in June 2024.
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© France Télévisions
The volunteers who assist the occupants fear that state services will not offer rehousing solutions. “We have a hundred people who will end up on the street, we have forty children who will end up on the street.”worries Jean-Claude, member of the AG fighting against all evictions.
“We will continue to look for places to be able to continue to provide a roof over our heads, which is just the bare minimum for these people who are, I remind you, exiles who are often in extremely complicated situations in their country.” he concludes.
