Paris is opening its first official refugee camps. The aim is to move people out of makeshift camps around the capital and into proper shelters.

This former railway depot is getting a new lease of life. Over the next month it will be completely transformed into an emergency centre to host hundreds of refugees while they wait for a place in a refugee hostel.

This derelict building in northern Paris was going to be knocked down but instead it’s being converted into a home for around 400 people.  There is building work going on all around, it’s still a work in progress but things are coming along this building here for example is going to be a restaurant and these wooden boxes that you see just behind me are going to be bedrooms. 

The camp will be divided into eight little neighbourhoods.The architect tells me the aim is to create a space that’s both comfortable and welcoming.

"It’s important for the people arriving to stay in their community and to speak the same language with their neighbours. Those eight groups will have their own identity, they will have their own colour. It will be very colourful, you cant see now but it will be a joyful and colourful project.  And each neighbourhood will be made for 50 people and each will have it’s own sanitary block, each one will have it’s own place to eat and all the common facilities," said architect Julien Beller.

This camp will be for men only and is due to open in mid-october.
Another camp for women and children will follow by the end of the year.
But the camps will only host new arrivals as they get their bearings and decide whether they want to seek asylum.
 
And Paris officials say for the system to work, the government needs to provide more places to accommodate asylum seekers while their claims are processed.

"We negotiated with the government, with the state, that people stay for five to ten days, maximum.  And after ten days the state relocates them somewhere else in France. Currently the government is asking every department to give places for refugees," said Dominique Versini, deputy mayor of Paris for Social Affairs.

The government has reportedly made plans to offer shelter to 12,000 migrants in towns across France by the end of the year.

It comes as France faces increasingly pressure to clear not only the makeshift camps dotted around Paris, but also the burgeoning camp in Calais which is currently home to up to 9,000 people.