Paris mayor inaugurates new reception centre for migrants

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo inaugurated a new migrant reception centre on Tuesday, which she hopes will prevent migrants from camping in squalid places in the city and ease tensions in affected neighbourhoods.

The centre in a northern district can hold 400 people. City officials said the first group of migrants was expected to arrive later this week.

More than 18,000 migrants have been removed from Paris streets and parks and given shelter since June 2015.

Earlier this month, French authorities cleared a makeshift camp near the Stalingrad metro station where more than 3,000 people camped in tents. The operation followed the relocation of nearly 7,000 people from a camp in Calais on the French side of the English Channel which was called “the jungle” by migrants.