14 foreigners housed in an unsanitary apartment

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It was 6 a.m., Monday December 16, when the police accompanied by Jean-Jacques Krys, deputy mayor of Sarcelles (Val-d’Oise), and city services presented themselves in front of the door of the apartment of the municipality. Housing that the authorities suspected of being in over-occupancy. A situation which was quickly verified once the agents had passed through the front door.

Fourteen illegal aliens

In the rooms, they discovered several bunk bedssometimes leaving room only for a simple piece of furniture allowing the occupants to pile up their belongings, while the curtain rod in the living room served as a wardrobe. In total, fourteen foreigners in an irregular situation were identified in the apartment, reveals the Val-d’Oise prefecture, also reporting the discovery of a completely unsanitary kitchen, as well as several dangerous electrical connections.

Administrative sanctions

At the end of their action, “administrative sanctions were initiated for over-occupancy, undignity of housing, electrical risks and unproperty”, specify the State services which recall that over-occupancy is linked to a number of people per person. bedroom.

A 9 m bedroom² being thus designed to accommodate a maximum person, and it takes 16 m² for two people.

“Operations to combat substandard housing are carried out regularly by the State in Val-d’Oise with the support of the municipalities concerned,” continues the Val-d’Oise prefecture. The objective being to flush out sleep merchants who rent mattresses for between 150 and 200 euros to foreign nationals, mostly in an irregular situation.

A slumlord imprisoned after the death of a teenager

“Slumber merchants are criminals,” denounced the prefect of Val-d’Oise, Philippe Court, following a similar operation carried out in the neighboring town of Garges-lès-Gonesse last May. The State representative then underlined that “these are people who have no respect for the human person when we see the conditions in which they house their fellow citizens”.

A year earlier, unworthy housing had been the cause of a tragedy that struck the town. In February 2022, a 13-year-old girl died of asphyxiation following a fire which broke out in an apartment occupied by around twenty people from Bangladesh. Numerous electrical appliances, auxiliary heaters, equipment, chargers, likely to have caused the disaster were found there. These would have caused a malfunction which Identified, the alleged sleep dealer had been indicted for “aggravated manslaughter.

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