Paris court overturns police ban on food handouts for migrants, homeless

A Paris court has overturned a police order that banned charities from distributing meals to migrants and homeless people in the north of the French capital. The police prefect had argued that the handouts draw homeless people to the area, threatening public order, but associations say banning food aid does not address the root of the problem.

Agathe Nadimi (centre), founder of the Midis du Mie association that provides meals to migrants in Paris, and was one of the groups pushing back against the Paris prefect's order banning meal distributions in the north of the city. © Bahar Makooi / InfoMigrants

On Tuesday, the Paris administrative court sided with several associations that had called for the cancellation of the 10 October order from the Paris police prefect that prohibited food distribution in the north of Paris for a month.

“In any case, people are there, so let’s face up to it and make sure that we get to know them,” Samuel Coppens spokesperson for the Salvation Army told RFI.

“For us humanitarian associations, a person who is hungry is a person who is hungry, so we must and we will continue to serve these people.”

On Sunday, several associations served more than 300 meals under the tracks of the elevated metro line that runs along the edge of the area where police had banned outdoor meal handouts.

They were flouting the ban, which they said unfairly impacts people living in precarious situations.

The order, signed by Prefect Laurent Nunez, said that outdoor food distributions draw too many migrants and other homeless people to the area.

Because of their “recurrent nature”, the distribution of meals increases the needy population and also “encourages the creation of camps where for migrants, drug addicts and homeless people”.

The order said “the risks of people overflowing into the streets, garbage, scuffles and the presence of drug addicts generates public disorder and complaints from people living in the neighbourhoods”.

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'Policy of harassment'

Associations, who feed about 500 people each day, say they are helping an already difficult situation in a neighbourhood that draws hundreds of asylum seekers from Afghanistan, Sudan and Eritrea awaiting their papers.

“Despite repeated interventions from the police prefecture, which have intensified with the approaching Olympic Games [in 2024], the area remains a draw,” 23 associations said in an open letter published Tuesday.

Banning meal distributions would not only deprive people of much-needed food, they argued, but also company and support for what can be a very lonely existence on the street.

“Before hindering this solidarity, no exchanges were proposed by the prefecture of police with the associations who work in the sector, showing the absence of a will to find viable, long-term solutions that protect these people,” said the letter.

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“This order is part of a global policy of harassment, called ‘zero point of attachment’,” they said, referring to a policy put in place in 2016 to clear out the refugee camp in Calais, in the north of France.

“It consists of not giving any respite to people in the streets, systematically dismantling all gatherings and hindering all humanitarian aid.”