Inside France’s new shantytowns

Subscribe to France 24 now: FRANCE 24 live news stream: all the latest news 24/7 Shantytowns are a daily reality in France for the 16,000 men, women and children, mostly from Eastern Europe’s persecuted Roma minority, who call 570 makeshift slums home. On France’s Atlantic Coast, the Loire-Atlantique department, with its 40-odd “illegal encampments” in and around Nantes, contains the most shanty dwellers. In 2017, the French State and the 24 municipalities of