Rights groups have accused France of carrying out targeted arrests of foreign migrants to fill chartered deportation flights to China and Romania, in possible breach of European rights law.
Police squads have deployed across the Paris subway system in recent months, systematically checking the identity of foreign-looking individuals, as part of a government drive to step up expulsions of illegal migrants.
In one incident witnessed by reporters on Sept. 2, officers singled out all Asian passengers, searching those unable to produce ID papers and bundling them off to a police van where a Chinese interpreter was at the ready.
Why target Asians?
"Because we already had enough blacks," one officer replied.
Six days later, the first chartered deportation flight between France and China was set to leave Paris.
It was finally postponed after China asked for more time to draw up the necessary paperwork.
"They need to fill the planes to make them financially viable, so they don't look at each foreigner's case in detail," charged Jean-Pierre Alaux, a research director at the Gisti immigrant information and support group.
The European Convention on Human Rights bans the "collective expulsion of aliens" -- meaning any measure constraining foreigners, as a group, to leave a country, unless each individual case has been thoroughly examined.
Belgium was convicted of breaching the convention in 2002, over the rounding-up and expulsion of a group of 74 Roma gypsies from Slovakia.
According to Cimade, the only immigrant support group with access to French immigrant detention centers, "several massive and systematic arrests of Chinese were carried out in Paris earlier this month, to fill the centers."
"There are regular targeted arrests: the authorities announce in advance there will be charters, the government flights are booked, then they detain people of the nationality in question," said Annette Huraux, a legal adviser at Cimade.
Meanwhile, the European Court of Human Rights is examining a case brought in protest at the expulsion of five Afghan nationals on a charter flight on Dec. 20, according to Alaux.
"At the Gare de l'Est [in Paris], police, accompanied by a Dari translator, were arresting only those of Afghan appearance -- the blacks were amazed not to have their papers checked," he said.
Since May, 480 Romanians have been deported from France aboard eight charter flights, according to interior ministry figures.
The rights group La Voix des Roms said that there has been "a growing number of round-ups targeting Roms, in blatant disregard of the European Convention of Human Rights."
The Paris police department and the French interior ministry both refused to comment last week on the allegations regarding grouped deportations.
Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy -- a frontrunner for next year's presidential elections -- has championed a tough line toward the country's estimated 200,000 to 400,000 illegal immigrants.
The government has vowed to step up the pace of deportations, and has scrapped the automatic right to residency papers for migrants who have been in the country for 10 years.
The rhythm of expulsions has been steadily rising, from 15,000 in 2004 to 20,000 last year, and Sarkozy has set a national target of 25,000 for this year.
The authorities are, however, examining roughly 30,000 residency applications from illegal immigrant families with school-age children, in the wake of a major grassroots campaign to block their deportation.
Four people jailed in the landmark Hong Kong national security trial of "47 democrats" accused of conspiracy to commit subversion were freed today after more than four years behind bars, the second group to be released in a month. Among those freed was long-time political and LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham (岑子杰), who also led one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy groups, the Civil Human Rights Front, which disbanded in 2021. "Let me spend some time with my family," Sham said after arriving at his home in the Kowloon district of Jordan. "I don’t know how to plan ahead because, to me, it feels
‘A THREAT’: Guyanese President Irfan Ali called on Venezuela to follow international court rulings over the region, whose border Guyana says was ratified back in 1899 Misael Zapara said he would vote in Venezuela’s first elections yesterday for the territory of Essequibo, despite living more than 100km away from the oil-rich Guyana-administered region. Both countries lay claim to Essequibo, which makes up two-thirds of Guyana’s territory and is home to 125,000 of its 800,000 citizens. Guyana has administered the region for decades. The centuries-old dispute has intensified since ExxonMobil discovered massive offshore oil deposits a decade ago, giving Guyana the largest crude oil reserves per capita in the world. Venezuela would elect a governor, eight National Assembly deputies and regional councilors in a newly created constituency for the 160,000
North Korea has detained another official over last week’s failed launch of a warship, which damaged the naval destroyer, state media reported yesterday. Pyongyang announced “a serious accident” at Wednesday last week’s launch ceremony, which crushed sections of the bottom of the new destroyer. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called the mishap a “criminal act caused by absolute carelessness.” Ri Hyong-son, vice department director of the Munitions Industry Department of the Party Central Committee, was summoned and detained on Sunday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. He was “greatly responsible for the occurrence of the serious accident,” it said. Ri is the fourth person
At a calligraphy class in Hanoi, Hoang Thi Thanh Huyen slides her brush across the page to form the letters and tonal marks of Vietnam’s unique modern script, in part a legacy of French colonial rule. The history of romanized Vietnamese, or Quoc Ngu, links the arrival of the first Christian missionaries, colonization by the French and the rise to power of the Communist Party of Vietnam. It is now reflected in the country’s “bamboo diplomacy” approach of seeking strength through flexibility, or looking to stay on good terms with the world’s major powers. A month after Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) visited,