VIDEO REPORT: MSF starts COVID-19 activities in Ile de France (EN)

MSF started activities linked to COVID 19 in France, focusing on vulnerable people living in the streets, such as migrants. On March 24th, 700 people were evacuated from a camp in Aubervilliers near Paris, where they were living in precarious conditions. They were dispatched on various emergency shelters located in Paris and Ile de France. MSF teams are deployed in some of these shelters to evaluate their health and identify potential COVID 19 cases.

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VIDEO REPORT: MSF starts COVID-19 activities in Ile de France (FR)

MSF starts COVID-19 coronavirus activities in France

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Unique Identifier Code / URN MSF310377

Date taken / Date Recorded 24/03/2020 12:00 AM

Country France

Commissioning section MSF-FRANCE

Photographer / videographer / producer Agnes Varraine-Leca

Usage Rights (MSF) External Media, MSF Fundraising, MSF Publications, Social Media

Formal Consent Copy available no

Editor's rating ★★★ (F)

Video format h264 (Main) (avc1 / 0x31637661)

Duration 2m57s

Maximum Size 1920px × 1080px 296.09 MB

Additional Information / Shotlist SCRIPT - Coronavirus: MSF assists vulnerable people in Ile de France

Report
Paris, France

Corinne Torre
MSF head of mission in France

France doesn’t provide consistent screening because the country doesn’t have enough tests.

700 people were forcibly removed
from a vacant lot
on Tuesday, 24th March

They’d been living in extremely tough conditions, confined in an area with no water supply or access to showers, toilets and food distributions. The week preceding their removal they’d be even more isolated because the police wanted to prevent them from leaving the site.

These vulnerable people are now
confined in emergency accommodation
requisitioned by the authorities

It’s important they’ve been given accommodation and that their health can now be assessed. But what we can’t agree to is confining them in a gym where, given the Covid-19 epidemic, giving them instructions on observing basic protective measures is extremely difficult.

Ideally, buildings should be made available, hotels with individual or possibly even twin rooms where it would be much easier to help make people aware of what they need to do. But, it’s true that right now gymnasiums are just about the only solution left. If they’re not put up in gyms, next it’ll be a camp. It really isn’t ideal.

MSF provides assistance in shelters,
assessing people’s health and
identifying suspected cases of Covid-19

Taking care of the homeless is important. They’re already vulnerable and, with the coronavirus epidemic, they’re in an even worse situation because it’s almost impossible for them to observe the hygiene measures needed to protect their health. If we can give them somewhere to live, it’ll be much easier for us to identify suspected cases and refer anyone testing positive for the virus to the appropriate facility.

They're probably going to stay in the gym until the epidemic’s over. Then, it’ll be back to business as usual, with the same old system and problems of access to the asylum process. The courts have closed and all asylum applications are suspended. The entire legal system has ground to a halt.

The Paris Regional Health Authority [Agence régional de santé] is struggling and has asked us for our help. The authority is responsible for supplying the test kits. France doesn’t provide consistent screening because the country doesn’t have enough tests.

The Regional Health Authority recommends
testing the first 3 suspected cases
in homeless shelters

Take the case of this gym. We’ve got five test kits and 600 people in 6 shelters. So clearly, it’s not enough. We’re short of masks and all the basic equipment we need. All the medical organisations are struggling to cope due to the lack of resources and equipment, which, under normal circumstances, is provided by the Ministry of Health.

Mobile MSF teams are assisting
medical organisations in emergency shelters
in Paris and Seine Saint Denis