Police clear dozens of migrants, activists from Paris university
Police moved in on a Paris university early Tuesday to remove dozens of migrants and activists who had been living in the building since January. Authorities are working to clear out makeshift camps that regularly appear in the French capital. A total of 194 people were taken to a gym to have their asylum applications processed. An additional 160 “illegal occupants” were removed from the Paris-8 university in Seine-Saint-Denis, just north of the capital, AFP reports. About 70 students and activists, alerted to the imminent operation, had formed a human chain to try to keep out the police, who used tear gas to get inside. The migrants, mainly from West Africa or Sudan and Eritrea, had been sleeping on the streets of Paris when pro-refugee activists invited them to occupy the university site in January.