A group of migrants being held in a deportation centre in the southern French city of Perpignan are alleged to have set the detention facility on fire this week after what was claimed to be a coordinated action.
The group of migrants detained at the Administrative Detention Center of Perpignan are alleged to have set fire to several mattresses on Tuesday evening, with smoke seen emanating from one of the facilities buildings at around 7:15 pm.
Five police officers who were at the scene were able to evacuate the 24 people being held at the detention centre, most of them illegal immigrants, and no injuries were reported as a result of the fire, the French news website Actu reports.
As the migrants were being evacuated, other fires appeared in other buildings of the facility. Local firefighters fought the blazes, while the Mayor of Perpignan, populist National Rally (RN) member Louis Aliot, and other officials arrived on the scene.
The Alliance Police Union released footage of the fires on Twitter and stated, ” Luckily, no police guards were injured, we would also like to highlight their responsiveness which made it possible to quickly secure the place.”
The incident, if proven, would not by any means the first time migrants have set their own housing on fire in recent years. In Italy, a hotel being used to quarantine migrants during the coronavirus pandemic was set on fire in a similar manner in September 2020.
The Villa Sant’Andrea hotel, located in the town of Valderice caught fire after migrants set fire to mattresses and other pieces of furniture in protest of the coronavirus measures.
The deportation of illegals has been a major topic in France for several weeks and it was revealed that in recent years, over 90 per cent of deportations have not been carried out, with just 6 per cent of deportation orders in 2021 being completed.
An October poll found that six out of ten French people would like to see all illegals placed in detention centres and deported but the entire French state has room for only around 2,000 illegals in existing detention centres, while an estimated 700,000 illegal immigrants currently reside in the country.