After the death of three people in a fire at their squat in Lyon, the interior minister was there to "express his sorrow" but more importantly, to reaffirm its policy towards Roma, "continue the work of dismantling and evacuation camps. "
The fire broke out in the night from Sunday to Monday, around 1am. Two women and a child of 12 years died. But the toll could be higher as firefighters still digthe rubble. There could be six or seven victims. Manuel Valls and Christiane Taubira visited on site this morning, the Ministers of Interior and Justice in otherwise in Lyon, official travel for a review of priority areas for security.
The fire took Audibert and Lavirotte street in the old administration building abandoned factory Leroy-Somer, the 8th district squatted since the summer of 2012 by dozens of Roma families in Romania. It would have counted up to 300 people.
According Gilberte Fox, activist in the Association CLASS (Children's education squats), a few hundred people lived only in the administrative building.
All survivors and those who had built small huts in the hangars were housed in a school gymnasium located avenue des Lumières.
In 2004, already two Roma children had perished in the fire of their caravan on land squatted Gerland (Lyon 7th).
End of March 2013, the one of the largest slums in Lyon in Saint-Fons was partly burned, causing no casualties. This squat 8th district was to be evicted in the coming days.
Indictment of the state by associative
On Monday morning, the associations have indicted the state policy on the local level as at the national level.
Lyon's militant Gilberte Renard:
"This fire is the responsibility of the State. There are solutions to accommodate these families. But Manuel Valls prefer to expel. "
For Jean Philippe MRAP activist, quoted by Reuters (via lepoint.fr ): "What has happened is symptomatic of the political prefecture of the Rhone"
"She refuses to apply the circular of 26 August 2012 which provides medical diagnostic, and social security, the only answer is the expulsion of squats and camps and whenever the situation worsens. "
According to him, a man was killed two months ago in the same squat, crushed by a part of the building collapsed.
associations point out that the majority of people in this squatted factory had been several expulsions The last late September . No alternative accommodation was proposed.
In a press release, Doctors of the World "said that the emergency is not to evict but to protect the most vulnerable people, and find permanent housing solutions"
"The human cost of this tragedy is further evidence (...) the urgency to improve their living conditions as provided in the circular dated 26 August 2012".
Manuel Valls called for "continued evictions"
Despite claims associations, the Minister of the Interior remained right in his boots. He spoke on the location of the fire, briefly followed by his colleague, the Minister of Justice, Christiane Taubira.