For dozens of young men who fled political unrest in their native Tunisia, dreams of a better life in France have come to a bitter end squabbling for food handouts in a dusty park under Paris’ busy ringroad.
“In Tunisia, we looked at France like the country of human rights, of humanity,” said Taoufiq Ben Ali, 33, a butcher from Tunis. “But since coming here we can see they don’t want us. We are very disappointed by what we see in France.”
Ben Ali thought he was among the lucky few to reach Paris before French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s government slammed shut its frontier to halt migrants from Italy, the entry point to Europe for about 25,000 people fleeing North African unrest.
The move sparked a diplomatic row, but Sarkozy and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi appeared to put aside their differences on Tuesday, jointly calling for reform of Europe’s Schengen free-travel zone to make it easier to shut borders to a migrant influx.
More like a refugee camp than a migrant shelter, the settlement where Ben Ali lives is one of half a dozen in Paris where hundreds of Tunisians have camped since crossing the border.
“It’s a big soccer match in which we are the ball ... Let’s hope the referee stops the match,” he said, adding that the referee in question was the EU.
Ben Ali said he had already entered France once since fleeing Tunisia, getting as far as the southern city of Nice before police sent him back to Italy. From Milan he tried his luck again, taking a bus to Lyon and from there up to Paris.
“Why does Italy help Tunisians and France does not? I don’t understand. Today, French people look at Tunisians like animals — in the bus women hold their noses when I pass,” he said.
Immigration has become one of France’s hottest issues ahead of elections next year. Dismally unpopular and facing a threat from the far right, Sarkozy has toughened his line and taken aim at Muslim practices seen as undermining French identity.
Led by hard-line French Interior Minister Claude Gueant, Sarkozy’s government has even taken aim at reducing legal immigration, raising dissent within the Cabinet and from immigration experts.
Gueant has said immigration would be reduced, mainly by cutting work and family grouping visas — groups that made up about half of the 200,000 immigrants with visas last year, according to France’s Office of Immigration and Integration.
“It doesn’t make a lot of sense,” said Georges Maitre, a migration expert at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. “Most of the work immigrants to France are highly qualified — not exactly a burden on the economy.”
French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde said France — which has among the lowest legal migration rates in the developed world — should be encouraging lawful immigration to boost its economy.
Critics say the tough line on immigration is part of Sarkozy’s strategy to boost his poll ratings by drawing voters away from the National Front led by the telegenic Marine Le Pen.
“There is a political objective, which is to follow systematically behind every thesis put forward by the National Front until the election,” Henry said. “It only makes the French people more confused about what is actually going on.”
Back in the park, bits of trash lay piled along the low wire fence that surrounded the area and many migrants reclined on pieces of cardboard that served as bedding on its trampled, dusty lawn.
Many migrants complained about the lack of showers and toilets, though municipal authorities said they were rushing to provide more humane conditions.
Some held out hope that Sarkozy’s government would soften its stance once the crisis in North Africa passed.
“Sarkozy is leaving us in the lurch not to encourage others to come, but once things will have calmed down, I think we’ll be able to work, inshallah,” one migrant said.
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