Re: France, because that is almost like getting home, dammit!
Not quite... Actually, for most illegal immigrants, France is merely a steppingstone in their long trek home to... BRITAIN --remember Sangatte:
Sangatte - Interview given by M. Nicolas Sarkozy to the Le Figaro newspaper, Paris 12.11.2002
M. Nicolas Sarkozy, Minister of the Interior, Internal Security and Local Freedoms
Q. - Yesterday, nearly a hundred refugees were still occupying a church in Calais. Does the closure of the Sangatte centre to newcomers condemn the people of Calais to experience this kind of situation all winter?
THE MINISTER - Sangatte isn’t closed, since 5,000 foreigners have registered there and every day around 1,800 spend the night there. On the other hand, we’ve decided to allow no more people in so that the situation of those already there can be sorted out humanely. The numbers of arrivals are considerably down. Admittedly, there are still a few dozen, but we have places for them in accommodation centres elsewhere in the country. (...)
Q. - Haven’t you underestimated the number of arrivals and stopped accepting new ones too soon?
THE MINISTER - (...) [Sangatte had become] a marshalling yard for illegal immigrants who don’t want to stay in France. In Sangatte, only 1% of refugees ask us for refugee status. They’ve only one aim: to get to Britain. (...) It was in no way a hasty decision. It was prepared, desired and thought through. Three things argued in favour of it: first, it fits in with the passing by the House of Commons of the new British Act on immigration. Until now, being an asylum seeker in Britain was enough to get a work permit. Since last Tuesday, that’s no longer the case. I had five working meetings with David Blunkett to get this result[*]. Once the British had kept their word and removed the immigrants’ main motive for going there via Sangatte, France had to honour her commitments.
Second reason, the French and British police have succeeded in breaking the extremely powerful Mafia rings operating in Sangatte, Britain and Afghanistan. Fifty or so people belonging to six clans are today in prison. It was necessary not to give the rings time to be re-established.
Third reason, there are on average 1,500 to 1,800 people in the Sangatte centre, but we have handed out 5,000 permits to use it. Ought we to have handed out 10,000 and made the problem even harder?
Q. - Some people are criticizing the government for handling the situation too harshly and not taking sufficient account of the social aspects...
THE MINISTER - I am astonished that people have criticized me for compiling a register of the people in the Sangatte centre. (...) People of 55 nationalities are living together in it, including 180 Sudanese, 90 Romanians, a majority of Kurds and 20-25% of Afghans. (...) We have got the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), a unanimously respected international organization, to come. I had a meeting with the High Commissioner, Ruud Lubbers, and persuaded him to bring his teams to Sangatte. They are going to consider on a case-by-case basis the situation of everyone there and decide who has to return to his/her country, who stays in France and who goes to Britain. They have already organized the voluntary assisted return of around ten Afghans, and it’s with them that we have finalized the sum of EUR 2,000 to be given to those returning to take with them. I hope that this voluntary assisted return programme will be a success.
Q. - What will you do with the illegals who can’t be sent back like the Iraqi Kurds?
THE MINISTER - We have pledged to work with Britain to find a solution for them. It’s too early to explain in any more detail. I shall have the chance to talk to the British Home Secretary about it on 1 December in London. (...)./.
ambafrance-uk.org
[*] Blunkett secures early Sangatte closure
Danny Penman and agencies
Monday December 2, 2002
Britain will accept up to 1,200 asylum seekers from the Sangatte camp in northern France when it finally closes on December 30, the home secretary, David Blunkett, said today.
France has agreed to close the camp four months ahead of schedule and to accept 3,600 of the 4,800 refugees currently registered at Sangatte. Those being granted leave to stay in Britain will be given four-year work visas rather than being granted refugee status.
The deal was hammered out earlier today in talks between Mr Blunkett, and the French interior minister, Nicolas Sarkozy.
Mr Blunkett described the move as a "breakthrough of enormous proportions", while Mr Sarkozy said the closing of the camp put an end to a "massive inhumanity".
Mr Blunkett said: "To close the magnet of Sangatte we will close the camp and the UK will take its fair share of those who would otherwise seek entry to the UK, claim asylum, cost the taxpayers of Britain a very great deal of money and would not be contributing to the solution of the problem."
Refugees who have already registered at Sangatte have until tomorrow evening to present themselves if they wish to take part in the programme agreed today, Mr Sarkozy said.
"We will give them until 8pm on Tuesday for those who have been given a badge. After that it's all over," Mr Sarkozy said. "That's the final deadline."
"In acting this way we have put an end to a situation that was characterised by massive inhumanity to those people who were living in the centre.
"Don't forget, we have had five murders in that centre.
"We will also put an end to a symbol - a symbol which was like a magnet for immigrants who thought that by coming there they would find a way into the UK."
The French government will take responsibility for about 300 remaining Sangatte residents plus another 500 it is already housing elsewhere.
They will also deal with any illegal immigrants who continue to arrive in the area, currently running at about 10 a week.
Mr Sarkozy said: "At the height of the crisis we were having about 400 arriving every day.
"So I think therefore that one of the most complex issues we have been asked to resolve has been resolved between us in a final and definitive manner."
At Home Office questions this afternoon, Mr Blunkett announced he had also agreed with the French government a range of measures to establish immigration controls and border security operations in northern France.
These would be extended to other ports along the French coast and eventually into Belgium. He said that he had also opened discussions with the Netherlands to establish similar controls.
[...]
64.233.183.104 |
