Paris residents furious that hundreds of migrants are sleeping on the streets of their neighbourhood are threatening to launch a hunger strike unless the authorities remove the squalid pavement camps.

They are demanding the relocation of a centre that processes asylum requests, which they argue is a magnet for migrants. Local groups accuse the migrants of harassing women and starting fights as they jostle for admittance to the office, managed by a charity with state aid.

Several high-profile police operations to clear migrants sleeping in the streets of the 10th arrondissement in northern Paris over the past two years have failed to solve the problem. Migrants reappeared within days or weeks.

Pierre Vuarin, a spokesman for a neighbourhood association, said: “The pavement is sometimes soaked in urine and the streets aren’t cleaned every day. Some people have sold their flats at knockdown prices and others have suffered mental breakdowns.”