From 300 to 400 immigrants and homeless people occupy an empty building in Gentilly (Val-de-Marne), in the Paris suburbs, and several dozen of them have taken refuge on the roof to avoid their expulsion from the place, learned Agence France-Presse (AFP), Sunday September 4, with associations. These migrants entered around midnight, on the night of Saturday to Sunday, in this empty building of 8,000 square meters “dedicated to destruction”, which is the subject of “a citizen requisition”, detailed the association United Migrants in a press release. ⚠️ Need help Since last night 400 people have occupied an empty building in #Gentilly, accompanied by United Migr… https://t.co/e3MIrefs0P— VillejuifFI (@Villejuif Insoumise) One of the leaders of the operation in police custody The police, who arrived on the spot, “stopped the entrances and then invited people to leave the premises, which they refused”, reported the police headquarters to AFP, specifying that the person in charge of the association had been arrested. Asked by AFP, the Créteil prosecutor’s office declared that one of those responsible for the operation was in police custody for “degradation in a meeting”. “He is a well-known activist in the police services for many actions of this type in disused premises unsuitable for habitation”, according to a source familiar with the matter. Read also Article reserved for our subscribers In Ile-de-France, migrants pushed out of Paris “These 400 people are homeless. They have already exhausted the temporary housing solutions (…). In order to avoid sleeping on the street for the umpteenth time with all the dangers and difficulties that entails, they decided to occupy this place, argued the association. The inhabitants undertake to maintain the cleanliness of the premises and to ensure a calm occupation with respect for the neighborhood. “The constitution of this squat is illegal and is not suitable for housing people in view of the state of the building and the lack of electricity”, underlined for its part the police headquarters, specifying that a hundred women and children were there. These migrants are mainly exiles from Africa (Sudanese, Chadians, Ivorians, etc.) or Afghanistan, including several families. Sunday morning, “about 300 people [étaient] still on the spot”, including “about forty people entrenched on the roof to avoid being expelled”, added Madeleine Barataud, an associative activist present on the spot. Read also Article reserved for our Migrant subscribers: “Moving from the camps to the suburbs is a novelty” Le Monde with AFP