FILES-FRANCE-SOCIAL-HOUSING-POVERTY-ROMA

(FILES) A member of the Roma community looks on in the "La Prairie des Mauves" settlement in Nantes, western France, on August 31, 2026. Between 700 and 1,000 people, mostly Roma, live in the few "hamlets" of the Prairie de Mauves, to the east of Nantes – a haphazard collection of caravans and small houses made of mismatched planks, where pieces of wood and abandoned furniture are piled up in a jumble. Not far from the tracks of the Nantes–Angers line, the shacks in the Moulin des Marees shantytown have been partly dismantled, the site littered with pieces of wood and overturned furniture. The evictions have been criticised both by the local right wing parties, which condemns a "piecemeal" approach, and by the Nantes branch of the French left-wing party La France Insoumise, which deplores what it calls organised "wandering". (Photo by Loic VENANCE / AFP)