The room is full, but activity is at a standstill. For the past week, more than 200 unaccompanied migrant minors have taken up residence in the Gaîté Lyrique, a famous cultural venue in the 3rd arrondissement of Paris. Installed on the first floor of the legendary performance hall, these young homeless people, most of them from sub-Saharan Africa, sleep on the floor.
This unexpected move initially forced the site management to cancel its “Marathon!” » which nevertheless attracted 800 spectators on December 14. Although it says it is understanding about this sudden movement of occupation, management announced this Tuesday the closure to the public and “until further notice” of the room.
“Unthinkable to throw these people onto the street”
“La Gaîté Lyrique regrets the sudden and sudden nature of this occupation, but recalls the legitimate nature of the collective’s demand aimed at obtaining shelter for these 250 people,” she wrote in a press release published this Tuesday. And to “strongly” denounce “the inaction and the incapacity for dialogue between the services of the City of Paris and those of the State”.
The Gaîté Lyrique staff reminds, again through this press release, that the place “is not competent and does not have the sanitary spaces and means to offer an accommodation solution to these people, with respect and human dignity” . In the absence of an immediate solution, “it is unthinkable, at the risk of putting them in danger, to throw these people onto the street”. And in fact, “the programming is currently suspended”.
This weekend, director Juliette Donadieu shared her concerns for the sustainability of the jobs of the 60 employees. And spokesperson David Robert, contacted earlier this week by AFP, detailed “several hundred thousand euros in direct losses” due to the cancellation of “private and public events since the start of the occupation.”
The Brassaï high school track
“We do not have empty premises that we could use overnight,” the first deputy (PS) to the mayor of Paris, Patrick Bloche, told AFP on Monday. “This is an illegal occupation of a building by migrants recognized as adults by the social services of the City of Paris,” for its part underlined the prefecture of the Île-de-France region.
Among its reflections, the City of Paris has put forward the possibility of potentially welcoming these unaccompanied minors in the former Brassaï vocational high school (15th century), closed since the start of the 2023 school year.
A proposal requiring the approval of the State, and against which the mayor (LR) of the 15th century, Philippe Goujon, opposed. “With more than 2,000 accommodation places for people in difficulty, the 15th takes its full place in the implementation of solidarity policies,” he declared on 250 unaccompanied minors at the Brassaï high school which must accommodate students from the Drouant high school. »
