Undocumented Migrants in Paris Sew Masks to Combat COVID-19 Spread

Through this initiative, these migrants wish to "pay back" their Parisian shelter. "I wondered what I could do to help, because I saw that the coronavirus is killing a lot of people. Since I am a trained tailor, I thought about making masks and bringing something to save lives," explains Jonson, a 32-year-old Ivorian, at the origin of the initiative.

Since last Tuesday, with other undocumented foreigners, the small improvised workshop in the basement is producing 500 fabric masks per day, distributed to the volunteers of the association who use them during food distributions for the most deprived. A windfall, in these times of shortage, reports Huffpost.

Florence, a 39-year-old Cameroonian, thinks that this is how they consider themselves useful. "It also allows you to get away during confinement," she continues, cutting one by one the threads that protrude from the fabric. The new government recommendations, which now require the population to wear fabric masks, "come at the right time," welcomes Marie-France Beretti, director of the center. "Like everyone else, we lack masks for our staff, our volunteers and the vulnerable people we welcome or are likely to meet," it is specified at the Salvation Army.