(20 Jun 2018) It may be World Refugee Day but the migrants living in a Paris gymnasium are likely the last to know.
Dozens have been living here since being vacated a few weeks ago from makeshift tent camps in the French capital.
Among them is 32-year-old Afghan, Nasir Ahmad.
Ahmad recently got his refugee status from the French state but he is still living either on the street or in state-provided temporary housing like this because he has no job and therefore not enough money to rent an apartment.
Ahmad says he worked as a translator for US forces in Afghanistan for four years but they did not bring him to America after his job finished and he was subsequently targeted by the Taliban who shot him in the arm.
After months of medical treatment in India, he returned to Afghanistan to pack up and flee to Europe.
One year in Germany and two years in France later and he finally got his refugee status.
But Ahmad remains bitter about the state of his life and his scant prospects for the future.
He says he lives like a homeless person and feels he made a mistake coming to Europe.
Not far from the gym housing these migrants, Roohollah Shahsavri runs Singa France, an NGO specialising in helping refugees in practical aspects of life.
He shrugs off the political polemic about the migrants and prefers to see the broader picture.
"This isn't a crisis," says Shahsavri adding that that 500 million people in Europe should be able to accommodate up to as many as 5 million refugees.
"It's completely manageable," he said.
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