Paris to Open Its First Refugee Camp This Year

The mayor of Paris announced Tuesday that the city will honor its commitment to helping refugees by opening two new refugee camps before the end of the year. According to Mayor Anne Hidalgo, the first camp—scheduled to open by mid-October—will be for single men and will be in the city’s central-north 18th arrondissement with at least 400 beds. The second camp will offer at least 350 beds for single women and families, and will be located just outside the city in the southeastern suburb of Ivry-sur-Seine. French immigration workers will run the camps while being assisted by charity workers from Emmaüs Solidarité. The city has already welcomed an estimated 15,000 refugees, but those individuals have been confined to makeshift camps in “shameful conditions,” as Mayor Hidalgo described them. “We act with humanity and it is our duty,” she said of the city’s push to build official camps for migrants.