the essential
Mélissa and Nasibé, although educated in a primary school, navigate from squat to squat to makeshift camps on the medians of crossroads. As the Christmas holidays approach, they sleep in tents on rue Jacques-Babinet.
The windy drizzle gradually soaks her purple jogging pants in a gloomy setting made of pieces of plastic and waste of all kinds but little Mélissa keeps smiling. As if nothing could touch him anymore, as if his 11-year-old body had turned into the shell of a stainless robot. With his older sister Nasibé and their parents, they currently live on a plot of land located between avenue de Reynerie and rue Jacques-Babinet. The two girls attend a school in Ponts-Jumeaux in classes adapted for non-native speakers, 6 km away.
“We go there on foot. Before starting classes, we take a shower in a squat nearby,” says Mélissa. Last year, at exactly the same time, the family found refuge at the foot of the Basso-Cambo metro station, Allée Marc Saint-Saëns. Since then, these people of Albanian origin have regularly found themselves on the street, each time the squat they occupied is dismantled, particularly in the Croix-de-Pierre district.
Fatima explains that she called 115 for five months without success to obtain emergency nights of accommodation for the family. Aged 47, this woman, marked by years of life on the street, struggles to offer them a roof over their heads. “I've been calling 115 for five months so they can spend a few nights in emergency accommodation, it's never led to anything. It's the same thing with social services dedicated to children “, she claims.
According to Fatima, eight school-age children would spend their nights in tents, a situation which, if confirmed, would raise serious concerns. They all come from Eastern countries.
Some of the families are grouped together on two platforms which overlook the ring road. They try to collect meager coins at red lights. To feed themselves, they collect unsold items abandoned in front of supermarkets. Fatima also mentions an underground market in the neighborhood where these products are sold at low prices. The place would be regularly evacuated by the police. Which would make it even more difficult for these families to survive.
