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Refugee finds a new, tiny home in Paris garden

by Umberto Bacchi | @UmbertoBacchi | Thomson Reuters Foundation
Thursday, 1 March 2018 10:30 GMT

The inside of a wooden house built by French non-profit organization Quatorze to lodge refugees is pictured family in Montreuil, Paris. February 21, 2018. Thomson Reuters Foundation/Umberto Bacchi

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"We are getting to know each other better and better every day ... we are becoming friends"

By Umberto Bacchi

PARIS, March 1 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Afghan refugee Sadiq has a home like no other in Paris.

It is made of wood, with a tiny kitchen and toilet, a small living area and, most unusually, is in someone else's garden.

The miniature house is in the backyard of Charlotte Boulanger and her partner Dominique - the first family to take part in a project aiming to put a roof over the head of refugees struggling to find a place to live in France.

"When I first arrived in France I lived on the street," said Sadiq, a 29-year-old from Afghanistan's western Herat province, who declined to give his full name for safety concerns.

"(It) is very good, it's a small house, very peaceful".

The United Nations estimates more than 220,000 refugees live France, where the number of people filing asylum requests hit a record in 2017, topping 100,000, giving impetus to demands for tighter controls on immigration.

Accommodation is a major issue, aid groups say.

Reception centres across the country have room for about 80,000 asylum seekers, said Nadege Letellier, who heads the refugee programme at Samu Social de Paris, a charity which matches refugees with volunteers willing to host them.

Once people are granted refugee status, they have only six months to move out of reception centres and find a home. Many end up on the street, which can worsen their isolation and make it harder to integrate and find a job, she said.

"If they don't know where to sleep at night, all the time, or where to wash themselves or eat something, they are too worried to try finding work," said Letellier.

The medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres said in November that about 1,000 refugees and migrants were sleeping rough in Paris, exposed to harsh winter temperatures.

France proposed tougher immigration laws last month, doubling the time for which illegal migrants can be detained and shortening deadlines to apply for asylum, sparking criticism from rights groups.

Architect Romain Minod of French non-profit organization Quatorze stands outside a wooden house built to lodge refugees in Montreuil, Paris. February 21, 2018. Thomson Reuters Foundation/Umberto Bacchi

IN MY BACKYARD

Not everyone who wants to help a refugee has room to spare and living with a stranger can prove tricky for both parties, said Romain Minod, 33, the architect who co-designed Sadiq's home with Ricardo Mayor of Spanish design group Dat Pangea.

"So we decided to build a tiny house that goes into gardens and backyards," said Minod, director of Quatorze, a non-profit that uses architecture to address social problems.

Sadiq's house is the first installed by the group as part of a project called In My BackYard, which aims to build 50 such houses over three years to accommodate up to 100 refugees in and around Paris.

The 20-square-metre building - equal to about five king size beds - is made of wood and walls are insulated with cardboard to retain heat.

"We wanted to build a house that was also environmentally friendly," said Minod, adding they plan to install solar panels and water-recycling showers in future models.

Minod hopes to cover costs by pre-selling the homes to camping and tourist resorts, which will take them over after they have served as refugees' homes for at least two years.

The inside of a wooden house built by French non-profit organization Quatorze to lodge refugees is pictured in Montreuil, Paris. February 21, 2018. Thomson Reuters Foundation/Umberto Bacchi

SECOND FAMILY

Ten refugees interested in learning the trade helped to build Quatorze's first tiny house, which was transported to the Boulanger's garden in the eastern suburb of Montreuil in November, Minod said.

"We didn't have space at home to welcome a refugee but we did have room in the garden," said Boulanger.

"We all have great autonomy, which is what seduced us about this project," the 37-year-old said, as Sadiq comes and goes through an opening in the backyard, without entering their home.

Her children, aged two and six, love the novelty of having something akin to a tree house in the garden and often play with Sadiq during the day.

A few times a week, they all eat together, she said.

"We are getting to know each other better and better every day ... we are becoming friends," she said.

Sadiq said he also loves his new-found independence.

After four months rough sleeping in Paris and about one year in a reception centre, he lived with another family for a few months but was too shy to leave his room for fear of disturbing his hosts, he said.

"I came out only when they left, while now I am easy," he said.

Three years after he escaped Afghanistan following threats from the Taliban for working for NATO troops, he is now interviewing for a shop assistant job in central Paris.

Placing refugees with families allows them to learn French language and culture faster than in reception centres where social workers often are their only outside contact, said Celine Schmitt, a spokeswoman for the U.N. refugee agency.

"It's like having a second family in France," added Letellier of Samu Social. "There is someone who waits for them to come back in the evening, and worry if they are not there."

(Reporting by Umberto Bacchi @UmbertoBacchi, Editing by Katy Migiro. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, property rights, climate change and resilience. Visit http://news.trust.org)

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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