Paris Housing Hell.

international | housing | other press Friday August 26, 2005 15:16 by iosaf

lessons to be learnt.

Last nights fire in Paris which killed 17 people most of whom were children is just one in a series of incidents which bring attention to the appaling conditions mostly african migrants are being housed in.

The group "DAL (droit au logement)" estimates 50,000 people in the "migrants, illegal migrants, asylum seekers, refugee" category are housed dangerously in the city.

Fourteen children and three adults died in the blaze, which broke out in the capital's 13th arrondisement or district in the south of the city shortly after midnight. Thirty were injured.

The building on rue Edmond-Flamand
, belonged to a charity and was built in the 19th century. Some 200 firefighters from 22 stations helped many of the 130 people in the seven-storey building to escape. But many wanted to jump from the windows in panic. The immigrants in the house came originally from Senegal, Mali, Côte d'Ivoire and Gambia.

The building was infested with rats and insects, and yet was described by the socialist mayor of the 13th arrondisement as "old but not unhealthy".

One of the surivors had this to say :-

"We were very badly housed, we had been waiting for new homes since 1991," he said.

French government Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy arrived at the scene of the fire in the early hours.

"We just saw the bodies of seven children who were asphyxiated. It's an abominable spectacle," he said.

One woman lost 4 of her 6 children.

He said he wanted a "census" of all the buildings that could be at risk of fire.

The cause of the blaze is unknown but a criminal investigation is under way.

It is the worst fire since an inferno at the one-star Paris Opera hotel in April killed 24 people, at least 10 of them children, and injured more than 50.

They too were mostly african, and action was promised to improve migrant slum accomodation afterwards.

french news reports:

the facts:-
http://libe.com/page.php?Article=319409
interviews with DAL, and the charity which ran the house, and the government
http://libe.com/page.php?Article=319398
interview with DAL on public responsibility.
http://libe.com/page.php?Article=319415

english:-
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4186266.stm


Here is a report from Droit Au Logement
who campaign for better housing for the poor of France regardless of origin or ethnicity.
they estimate 50,000 in the worst slum conditions in Paris.
http://www.globenet.org/dal/index.php3?page=SOMMSITUCHIF

They are continuing the campaign for the future basic social rights of the 2,000,000 unemployed, 2,500,000 precarious workers and 6 million others living on social benefits to safe housing.

* free of vermin.
* with fire escapes.
* no oercrowding.

& they'll continue their campaign for basic health provisions, because the woeful conditions the poorest are being housed in is an active public health risk be it in Paris or Ireland.
http://www.globenet.org/dal/