They are hoping that their “model” of organised squatting in empty buildings will become “a model for France”, providing accommodation to illegal immigrants from Africa that are currently sleeping in the streets.
An abandoned building of 240 square metres in the centre of Bordeaux that belongs to the regional administration has been occupied by nine African migrants squatters. Property prices in Bordeaux are around €3000 per square metre, which means that the building is potentially worth €720 000. The building has been illegally outfitted with water and electricity, probably stolen from nearby buildings.
The five French students wish to turn the building into a “reception centre for migrants”.
“A squat is a place where one doesn’t pay rent, that’s all. That’s the only difference. We have rehabilitated the building quite a lot,” one of the female students told C-news, the French digital news channel, formerly known as iTele.
According to the interviewing journalists Antoine Estève and Jérôme Rampnoux, the students “wish to give hope to the African migrants, and above all get other young people to imitate them”.
The migrants are apparently minor, and wish “to go to school”. According to assocations in the city, “more than one thousand minor migrants arrive in Bordeaux every year, with squats multiplying”.
One of the French students said: “The minors who are accommodated here want obtain French identity cards, but also wish to integrate into society.”
The Regional Council, the state institution that owns the building, has been contacted but has declined to commence eviction procedures against the migrants. “Eviction is not a solution. Every case will be studied, together with public institutions providing emergency accommodation,” a spokesman told C-news.
