200 migrants to a free show will abandon the building and face bankruptcy as refugees still refuse to leave after three months and spark wave of sex-related violence
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14444165/Left-wing-theatre-managers-invited-200-migrants-free-abandon-building-face-bankruptcy-refugees-refuse-leave-three-months-spark-wave-sex-related-violence.html?ns_mchannel=rss&;ns_campaign=1490&ito=social-twitter_mailonline
By Peter Allen & Taryn Pedler
The Daily Mail
February 28, 2025
Left-wing managers of a Paris theatre occupied by hundreds of homeless African migrants are set to abandon the building because of sex-related violence.
They say the crisis at the Gaîté Lyrique – one of the French capital’s most historic arts venues – is now ‘so explosive’ that retreat by this Friday is their only option.
Some 200 mainly young men moved in last December when the management gave them free tickets to a ‘Refugees Welcome in France’ conference.
But when the conference was finished, the migrants, who mostly come from France's former west African colonies, refused to leave the venue.
Performances were soon cancelled – losing the theatre thousands in revenue – as makeshift beds were placed around the stage and auditorium.
There are now 446 people living inside illegally, most of them claiming they are minors under the age of 18 who deserve permanent housing.
But local officials have insisted that they are adults and that most are known to the authorities and had been sleeping on the streets before entering the theatre.
The Collectif des Jeunes du Parc de Belleville, the group which organised the occupation, slammed the age test as 'racist and expeditive'.
This has led to ‘untenable promiscuity’ leading to increasing violence, say management, who are facing bankruptcy.
A statement released by them on Thursday reads: ‘Without intervention by the authorities by Friday, the Gaîté Lyrique company and its teams will be forced to leave the building.’
It says they will ‘suspend the execution of the contracts of service providers in charge of fire safety, security, hygiene and cleanliness, maintenance, and waste collection.’
Management warn of an ‘explosive and undignified situation’ that is ‘increasing in severity’.
Beyond fights breaking out because of sexual tensions, migrants have been seen dealing and using drugs.
Staff have been acting as ‘on-site security guards, even though this is neither their skill set nor their job,’ says the statement.
Despite this, the statement says staff have also been ‘welcoming and sheltering the occupants’.
In December, Paris's Socialist-led council, which owns the building, claims it looked for accommodation for the migrants but that none was available.
It called for the government to deal with the problem, but President Emmanuel Macron's centrist cabinet is said to have ignored the request and is reluctant to get involved in the debacle.
The theatre is owned by the City of Paris, which is dominated by Socialists and Greens.
A judge at the Paris Administrative Court ordered the evacuation of the building on February 13, but the council has refused to involve the police.
The migrants are being supported by political activists even more Left-wing than the theatre’s management.
Calling themselves the Collectif des Jeunes du Parc de Belleville – after a Parisian park – they view the occupation as being part of the ‘anti-racist and anti-colonial struggle’.
Local businesses have complained of losses due to the occupation.
The bistrot next to the 19th-century venue, a popular spot for theatregoers to eat and drink before and after shows, has reported €30,000 in lost revenue so far.
'They are ruining my business,' the manager Elia, herself the daughter of Algerian migrants, told The Times in December.
'They hang around outside my terrace, smoking joints and fighting among themselves. Not only do we no longer get theatregoers because the theatre is shut but we don't get passers-by either. They're being frightened away by all these young men.'
The 1,800-seat building that houses the current Gaîté Lyrique was built in 1862 and became celebrated for staging operettas by Jacques Offenbach, the German-born French composer, in the 19th century.
On November 1, France reinforced its borders with six of its neighbouring Schengen members - Belgium, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Spain and Switzerland - with increased checks.
The controls were applied to travellers entering France via land, sea and air routes from all six nations and will last until April 1, 2025 - but authorities have said they could be extended further.
A French government statement declared the checks were introduced due to 'serious threats to public policy, public order, and internal security posed by high-level terrorist activities... criminal networks facilitating irregular migration and smuggling, and migration flows that risk infiltration by radicalised individuals'.
The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer. It has never yet melted. ~ D.H. Lawrence
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