Asylum seekers and refugees in France
Recent stories
Two deportation deaths in one month
The French Interior Ministry has announced that it intends to increase the rate of deportations, which have fallen in recent years. But, in the last month, two attempted deportations from France have ended in loss of life.
28 January 2003 (692 words)
New refugee detention centre at Palaseieau, near Paris
Some 80 people attended a public meeting in Palasieau organised by the Collectif Anti-Expulsions to protest against the building of a new refugee retention centre which is to replace another one located in the suburb of Choisy-le-Roi.
17 October 2002 (87 words)
Deportations of sans papiers continue despite review
MRAP and LHR have complained that while the cases of sans papiers are in the process of being re-examined, deportations continue.
28 September 2002 (53 words)
Sans papiers movement regroups as government refuses group action
The sans papiers movement has been reinvigorated.
20 August 2002 (736 words)
Sangatte camp - finally to close
The Sangatte refugee camp near Calais will close its doors to new residents from November 15, and close altogether by April 2003.
6 July 2002 (286 words)
More reports that reception arrangements are in crisis
Plans to extend Coquelles removal centre
24 April 2002 (51 words)
Eurotunnel tries to close Calais asylum camp
Eurotunnel attempted to bring legal proceedings to get the French authorities to close the Sangatte refugee centre, outside Calais.
1 October 2001 (830 words)
Denial of asylum rights starts in Guyana
During a court case involving a young asylum seeker who travelled from Haiti to Guyana to Orly, it has emerged that the overseas department (DOM) has followed a deliberate policy of not distributing forms for asylum applications.
1 October 2001 (231 words)
Hungarian Gypsies recognised as refugees
In an unprecedented move, Ofpra has granted refugee status to two families of Gypsies from Hungary.
1 October 2001 (194 words)
Minister promises to end reception crisis
As criticisms of the abysmal state of France's reception system for asylum seekers deepens, the Employment and Solidarity minister Elisabeth Guigou visited the coordination centre for families seeking asylum (CAFDA) in Paris and promised to create fifty new CAFDA centres spread out across the country.
1 October 2001 (177 words)
Paris crisis of homelessness among asylum seekers
In July, associations for the homeless joined forces with the city planner and philosopher Paul Virilio to issue a statement drawing attention to the crisis in Paris arising from the numbers of destitute housing asylum seekers and sans papiers living on the streets.
1 October 2001 (187 words)
Anglo-French summit agrees cross-Channel controls
The French government has agreed to place Eurotunnel trains between Calais and Paris under international passport control and to establish a 'Trans-Channel Commission' to coordinate measures involving immigration, transport and maritime safety.
1 October 2001 (185 words)
Lille - asylum applicants degraded and dehumanised
After a public scandal, the Lille prefecture has intervened to denounce 'unacceptable practices' at the prefecture du Nord in Lille.
1 October 2001 (253 words)
Deaf eastern Europeans forced into slavery
Police say that they have dismantled an illegal work ring that brought deaf foreigners from eastern Europe to France and forced them to sell trinkets for very little pay.
1 October 2001 (63 words)
France shocked by arrival of first boat people
On 18 February, a Cambodian registered freighter carrying 910 Kurds hit rocks and run aground on the French Riviera, at Fréjus, between Cannes and St. Raphael.
1 October 2001 (589 words)
Wealthy Parisian residents oppose asylum advice centre
There were hysterical scenes at a press briefing as local residents protested against the opening in July of an asylum advice centre in a disused wing of the Laennac hospital, which lies in the seventh arrondissement of Paris.
1 October 2001 (329 words)
Immigration labour quotas considered
The foreign minister, Hubert Védrine has said that it may be time for France to break with its policy of zero immigration and move towards a quota policy, adaptable to the needs of the economy and to issues of integration.
1 January 2001 (81 words)
Immigration detainees swell prison numbers
According to Le Monde, overcrowding in French prisons is being exacerbated by the fact that people are being imprisoned for infractions of the foreigners' law, principally for not being in possession of a residence permit.
1 January 2001 (542 words)
European partners criticise France over clandestine entry
France is coming under increasing pressure from its European partners to take action against what they describe as 'illegal immigrants' attempting to reach other European countries via French territory.
1 January 2001 (357 words)
Marseilles - Moroccan children homeless and forgotten
According to L'Humanité 500 child 'illegals' from Morocco, some as young as ten years old, are sleeping rough in the streets and around the railway stations of Marseilles after being smuggled into France via the Straits of Gibraltar.
1 January 2001 (91 words)
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