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Marseille Clears Saint-Jean-du-Désert Rom Camp After Fire Disrupts Rail Service

Officials cite safety hazards, with hotel shelter proposed for vulnerable families.

Overview

  • Police evacuated the remaining families early on October 28 under a prefectural order, with social workers on site to offer temporary accommodation.
  • More than twenty officers were deployed for the operation, and Bouches-du-Rhône prefect Georges-François Leclerc visited the camp.
  • The settlement, located between a railway and a bus depot, had sheltered more than 150 people since 2021, many already displaced from earlier squats.
  • A trash fire on October 27 mobilized about thirty firefighters, led to the evacuation of roughly thirty people, temporarily halted Marseille–Vintimille trains, and caused no injuries.
  • The prefecture said hotel placements were offered to vulnerable families and refused by occupants, and one site is to be transferred to SNCF for the Provence–Côte d’Azur rail project.