PARIS (Reuters) – Police cleared hundreds of people from France’s biggest squat, a former student hall of residence near Paris, the Interior Ministry said on Thursday.
The Communist Party, which said 1,000 people were occupying the building, denounced the move as part of what it called French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy’s “determination” to arrest immigrants on a large scale.
“This expulsion on a large scale marks a further step in the violence and irresponsibility,” it said in a statement.
The squatters in the town of Cachan had held demonstrations demanding they be rehoused and that the illegal immigrants among them be granted residency permits.
Of 508 people evicted from the building, 49 adults had been arrested with a view to being sent back to their country of origin, the Interior Ministry said.
“The building is now empty … Its demolition will begin in the coming days,” the ministry said.