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25 July 2016

Waiting for Asylum

Camille Gharbi explores the ability of people to create a home in the most difficult of circumstances. 

©camillegharbi


Over the last few years, many informal refugee camps have been erected in Paris as a result of the migrant crisis.

People fleeing wars or dictatorships in countries including Afghanistan, Sudan, Iraq, Eritrea and Syria are continuously arriving in the city. Some are on their way to Calais, hoping to make it to the UK. Some have given up on their English dreams and are coming back from Calais. Others are willing to seek asylum in France and settle down in the country. Some of them have been in Europe for many years, going from place to place, struggling to survive. Some have just arrived in Europe after several months of harsh journeying through the Middle East or Northern Africa. Most of them have walked their way out of war. They have reached Europe with the idea that life would be better here. At least it would be safe, and they shall be able to live decently, far from threats and fear. As they gather under the bridges of the French capital, their disillusion is hard felt. None of them had anticipated the dirt, the cold, and the loneliness in which they are left. The silence of the State and the public institutions. The violence of the police forces.

So far Paris has no migration office where refugees arriving in the city can get information, orientation, or any basic support. They usually reach the city with the name of a place written on a piece of paper or in a text message, where they know they will meet fellow compatriots. Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo has recently announced that a UN standards refugee camp, the first of its type in a European capital, will be built in the city. Currently, there is little to welcome migrants arriving in the city. Refugees seeking political asylum have a right to protection and shelter, as written in the French Constitution, but the process of being officially recognised by the government is long. After submitting an application for asylum, refugees must wait for several months to get a first interview, and even longer to get a place to stay in an Emergency Center.

So as they get to Paris, most refugees join the existing informal camps that regularly mushroom in the north of the capital. Once there, they rely on the support of a few citizens and community associations to get food, shelter, blankets, clothes, hygiene products, and information on the asylum process. The  ‘lucky’ ones take shelter in tents, others sleep on cardboard mattresses on the pavement. Once in a while they manage to break into empty buildings and settle down for a while, until being expelled by the police.

On the 31st of July 2015, after several camps had been dismantled throughout the city, about 60 refugees managed to break into an abandoned high school, the Lycée Jean Quarré, with the help of French activists. Three months later, there were about 900 refugees, living in every single part of the building. They lived there in total autonomy, without any support from public institutions. People gathered in the classrooms, which were used as community rooms by day and accommodated sometimes more than fifty men at night.

In September and October 2015 I went almost daily to the Lycée Jean Quarré, to document the place and make ID pictures for asylum seekers. In one of those rooms I met a community of 40 Afghan men, who were sharing their day-to-day struggle for survival. The asylum process is very long and asylum seekers are not allowed to work until they get their papers. Most of those men were spending their days in and around the classroom, waiting. Killing hours by talking, making tea, playing cards and trying to learn French. Time goes slowly when life is on hold.

From those moments I have gathered together a series of photos entitled ‘The Waiting Room’, which depicts the everyday life of this Afghan community in the Lycée Jean Quarré.


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Le lycée professionnel Jean Quarré, établissement désaffecté du 19e arrondissement de Paris, a été investi par une soixantaine de demandeurs d’asile et de sans-papiers le 31 juillet 2015 suite à l’évacuation de campements dans les rues de la capitale. Au jour de son évacuation le 23 octobre 2015 il abritait plus de 1300 personnes d’une quinzaine de nationalités différentes, qui y vivaient regroupées par communauté de pays, installées dans tous les recoins du bâtiment. 

Les salles de cours du lycée, converties en pièces à vivre, y abritaient la nuit jusqu’à une quarantaine de personnes. De salles de classe, elles se sont vues transformées en salle d’attente, lieux de vie communautaire où l’on cohabite difficilement en attendant la suite. 

Dans l’une d’elle, une quarantaine d’afghans ont partagé leur quotidien pendant trois mois. On y dort, on y mange, on y prépare ses papiers, on y prend le thé en échangeant les dernières nouvelles, on y joue aux cartes ou aux échecs. On y étudie le français. Une demande d’asile est un parcours très long, ponctué de rendez-vous souvent espacés de plusieurs mois pendant lesquels les demandeurs sont dans l’incapacité de travailler et ne peuvent rien faire de plus qu’attendre la prochaine échéance. 

Entre les murs de l’ancienne salle de cours, les jours s’écoulent lentement. 

En septembre et octobre 2015, je me suis rendue quasi quotidiennement au lycée Jean Quarré, pour documenter le lieu et réaliser des photos d’identité pour les dossiers de demande d’asile des réfugiés. Les liens noués avec certains d’entre eux m’ont permis d'observer de manière privilégiée ces moments de vie en suspens.


Camille is an architect and photographer based in Paris. After graduating in architecture, she worked in several large architecture practices in France and abroad, while developing photographic projects on the side. Her keen knowledge of the built environment led her to specialise in architecture and urban landscape photography. She works on personal projects (such as the Waiting Room) in parallel to her commissions from architecture offices, government offices, private companies and community organisations. Several of Camille's documentary works have been exhibited including; 'The Crossing', a photography series about migrants, at Gallery IMMIX in Paris (2015) and 'Vodoun Child', a portrait series from Benin, as part of Rencontres Photographiques du 10eme in Paris (2013) and photography festival MetzPhoto (2011). camillegharbi.com



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