Pro-Migrant Group Claims Half of Migrants in Paris Makeshift Camps Suffer Mental Issues

A French pro-migrant association has claimed that as many as half of the hundreds of young migrants living in makeshift tent camps in Paris suffer from psychiatric issues, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

The pro-migrant association Utopia 56 took to Twitter earlier this week, speaking on the hundred of young migrants living in makeshift tent camps in the outskirts of the city of Paris, often under city bridges.

“For six months, hundreds of isolated foreign teenagers, without any resources, have been surviving day and night under bridges on the outskirts of Paris. Their physical and psychological situations are deteriorating day by day,” the group wrote.

The group claims that nearly half of the young men suffer from various mental issues, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and that while they claim they are minors they have been denied the status of a minor by French assessment systems.

Scabies, a parasite, is also rife in the makeshift vamps, according to the group, which cites the Red Cross. Scabies has been an issue in previous years in makeshift camps in Paris, with NGOs reporting on scabies outbreaks since at least 2016.

“While these young people have been away from their homes for months, even years, many find themselves without a phone, cut off from all family ties. Loneliness and abandonment only reinforce mental health problems,” the group said.

The association went on to demand the city of Paris and other authorities automatically presume the young migrants are underage and give them adequate housing, noting poor living conditions that have allegedly forced migrants to collect water from the river Seine to wash and brush their teeth.

Utopia 56 is well-known for the occupation demonstrations that they have organised in different areas of Paris in recent years, always making demands on local authorities to provide housing.

In March of last year, the group organised a protest involving around 500 migrants in the Place de la République, which lasted several hours before the group negotiated with the Paris government to provide shelter for the migrants.

Later that year, however, a report claimed that the group, which also operates in other areas of France, had connections to people smugglers and far-left extremism, an allegation the group later denied, labelling the claims “defamatory.”

Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson(at)breitbart.com.