This is what I called a Radical Behavior and Intolerance against the Immigrant.!!!!!!!!!!








France denies citizenship to veiled Muslim woman.

The case started quietly, when a Muslim woman who sheaths herself in a head-to-toe veil was denied French citizenship because she had not assimilated enough into this society. France's highest body upheld the decision, and politicians across the spectrum agreed it was the right move.


A few dissenting voices, though, are now questioning whether the decision pushed France's secularist values too far.

"Where does it begin or end? What we are calling radical behavior?" asked Mohammed Bechari, president of the National Federation of French Muslims. "Will we see a man refused citizenship because of the length of his beard ... or a man who is dressed as a rabbi, or a priest?"

On June 27, France's highest administrative body, the Council of State, ruled that the woman, identified only as Faiza X, had "adopted a radical practice of her religion incompatible with the essential values of the French community, notably with the principle of equality of the sexes, and therefore she does not fulfill the conditions of assimilation" listed in the country's Civil Code as a requirement for gaining French citizenship.

The council said the decision to refuse her citizenship did not aim to "attack (her) freedom of religion."

But critics accuse the French justice system of breeding fear and intolerance of Islam under the guise of upholding secularism. The country is home to western Europe's largest Muslim population, estimated to be at least 5 million of the nation's 63 million people - and growing.

French officialdom has struggled to instill secular traditions in Muslim immigrant communities, passing a law in 2004 barring the Islamic headscarf and other highly visible religious symbols from public schools. Proponents of that law welcomed the decision denying citizenship to Faiza X, who wears a niqab, or full-body veil, to her meetings with immigration officials.

"The burqa, it's a prison, a straitjacket," France's minister for urban affairs, Fadela Amara, herself born to Algerian parents, was quoted as saying.

The terms burqa and niqab are often used interchangeably in France, though the former refers to a full-body covering worn largely in Afghanistan with only a mesh screen over the eyes. An official state document said the woman wore a full-body niqab, which left her eyes uncovered.

"It is not a religious sign but the visible sign of a totalitarian political project preaching inequality between the sexes, and which carries within it the total absence of democracy," Amara was quoted as saying in the daily Le Parisien.

Amara told the paper she hoped extremists would get a strong message from the Council of State's ruling, which upheld immigration officials' refusal to grant citizenship to Faiza X.

The council's ruling did not refer to Faiza's niqab, which she said she adopted after arriving in France from her native Morocco, according to a report from a government commissioner to the Council.

The woman told immigration officials that she did not know anything about secularism or her right to vote, according to the commissioner's report. All the immigration officials handling her case were women. They asked her to remove her veil to identify herself, which she did only when no men were in the room, the report said.

Later, in a letter to immigration officials, the woman defended her lifestyle by noting that other immigrants granted French citizenship also maintain "ties with their culture of origin."

The woman and her husband told immigration officials that they adhere to Salafism, a strict strain of Islam.

Her statements to immigration officials indicate that "she leads a life almost of a recluse, cut off from French society," leaving the house only to walk with her children or visit relatives, the report said.

"She lives in total submission to the men in her family ... and the idea of contesting this submission doesn't even occur to her," the government report said.

Politicians on talk shows this week spoke out in support of the ruling. But Muslim groups had mixed reactions.

Mohammed Moussaoui, head of the moderate French Council for Muslim Communities, issued a cautious statement that did not come out strongly for or against the ruling. He said only that his group "rejects all forms of extremism and stigmas that would keep the Muslim component of the nation's society from living its spirituality in peace."

But Fouad Alaoui, vice president of the Union of Islamic Organizations of France, said, "It's a turning point in our judiciary that should make us think.

"I don't think that clothing is part of this country's values. Clothing is personal freedom."
Then he added, "On a personal level, I too am disturbed when I see a woman hide her face.

SHAMEFUL IMMIGRATION POLICIES IN FRANCE AND AROUND EUROPEAN UNION.




Prime Minister Francois Fillon said It will not change government policy. Laws are to be respected, and one shouldn't be on French territory if one does not have the authorization. Where THE U.N., Amnesty International, Human and Civil rights advocates stand on this shameful Policy?
When the Undocumented committed suicide in detention centers, mutilations, torn apart from families, handcuffed like the worst criminal, persecuted them. Why so much intolerance against the Undocumented? Being without a document will their punsihment fit their crime?
I will said know days the Law goes beyond any Human Values.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hypocrisy, and Inhumane is not Family Value. that's sad and ashamed.

Foudel Rahrah spent 10 days last year in the immigrant-detention center on the edge of Paris that inmates set ablaze this week. It was ``hell,'' he said.

``We were crammed four to a cell; the guards would barge in at all hours of the night to count the number of inmates,'' the 38-year-old Algerian mason said. ``People in there are willing to die to stay in France.''

Immigrants awaiting deportation burned down the center in Vincennes on June 22 after a two-day riot following the death of a 41-year-old Tunisian detainee. The flames reignited debate over government targets for the number of undocumented foreigners expelled each year and the conditions in which they're held.

The opposition Socialist Party and Cimade, a government- funded organization that provides legal assistance to immigrants, say the rush to meet deportation goals has led to overcrowding as the dragnet sweeps in even people who have been in France for decades. This year's target is 26,000, up from 25,000 last year. President Nicolas Sarkozy's government says it's doing what it was elected to do: control illegal immigration.

``This was a criminal fire set after the natural death of an inmate,'' Prime Minister Francois Fillon said June 24. ``It will not change government policy. Laws are to be respected, and one shouldn't be on French territory if one does not have the authorization.''

The Tunisian detainee died of a heart attack, police said.

On the day that Fillon spoke, the afternoon daily Le Monde said the fire incident gave France a ``shameful image.''

Desperation

Sarkozy just has a ``policy of hitting targets,'' said Stephane Le Foll, a spokesman for the Socialist Party. ``The government must change its immigration policy to respect the rights of foreigners.''

The fire was the second major blaze at Vincennes in a year, according to Cimade.

Suicides, self-mutilations, fights and hunger strikes are common at France's 31 detention centers, where foreigners are held while authorities decide if they are to be deported, Cimade said. An inmate committed suicide at a center near Marseille in December 2006, another in June 2007 near Bordeaux.

``When people who feel they have committed no crime are handcuffed and led to a prison; when they are threatened with a rupture from their life, their families, and are threatened with expulsion that they see as an end to a life, it's not surprising that we see acts of desperation,'' said Damien Nantes, the head of Cimade's service for migrants threatened with deportation.

Running from Police

In September 2007, a Chinese woman died after jumping out of a window when police arrived at her tenement. A 20-year-old Kenyan hung himself in February after he was refused papers. A Malian drowned when he jumped into a river to avoid a police check in April.

A 2005 government decree set a maximum capacity of 140 inmates per detention center. The Vincennes center had 250, skirting the limit by officially splitting the camp into two separate units under the same management, according to Cimade.

The government says an estimated 200,000 to 400,000 foreigners are illegally in France, which has a population of 61 million. The number of people passing through the detention centers rose to 35,008 last year, from 30,923 in 2006 and 25,849 in 2004, Cimade's annual report says. In 2007, the detainees included 242 children, one three weeks old.

In the year to May 31, 29,729 foreigners were deported, up 31 percent from the previous 12 months.

`Humane Measures'

Brice Hortefeux, minister for immigration, said those numbers prove the government's policy is working. The expulsions are ``a sign that, conforming to the wishes of our citizens, France is controlling its immigration,'' he said at a June 19 press conference. Questioned in Parliament this week, Hortefeux said detention centers in France -- compared with those elsewhere in Europe -- are better than most.

Le Monde chided him for failing to address the treatment of immigrants awaiting a decision on their fate.

``No responsible government can be inactive faced with illegal immigration,'' Le Monde said in an editorial. ``But rather than rejoicing in the success of his policy of hitting targets, Brice Hortefeux should demand an audit of the detention centers in France and take humane measures to avoid a repetition of this drama.''

European Challenge

Countries across the European Union are struggling with how to handle immigration. The European Parliament on June 18 set a limit of six months in detention, extendable in certain cases to 12 months, for its 27 member countries.

Previously, the Netherlands and Britain had no time limits, while in Germany it was 18 months, an EU report in January found. The worst detention centers were in ``gateway'' countries facing boatloads of migrants, including Spain, Italy and Greece. Dutch centers, some based on former offshore oil-drilling platforms, are ``harsh' and ``excessively severe,'' the report said.

At 32 days, France had the shortest maximum detention time. The report said migrants in France also had more access to legal help than in Britain, Germany and Italy.

Rahrah, the Algerian mason, said he was arrested last August after two policemen asked for his identity papers as he walked to work in Paris. He was released from the Vincennes center when his pro-bono lawyer argued he'd been held 28 hours at a police station before being sent there, longer than the 24- hour limit.

He's lived in France for 10 years and is still waiting for a decision on his request to regularize his situation.

A year after I was deported.


A year after a small French town's Malian Undocumented were deported, a few are back and working legally - and more part of the town than ever. Learn how they came back legally.

Immigrants start fire in French deportation centre.

More Innocents deaths attributed to the cruel, Obsessive, brutal Immigration policies.


PARIS, June 22 (Reuters) - Undocumented immigrants started a fire on Sunday at one of France's biggest deportation centres outside Paris, burning down two buildings and injuring around 20 inmates waiting for expulsion, police said.

The blaze began when a number of inmates set mattresses on fire after the death on Saturday of a Tunisian immigrant detained in the centre, one inmate told Reuters by telephone.

Police said in a statement that 20 people "made uncomfortable by fumes" had been taken to hospital, but that no one had been seriously injured.

They said several fires had been started deliberately at 1345 GMT, severely damaging two buildings housing a total of 273 inmates. All the buildings' occupants have been evacuated and will be moved to other centres.

A 41-year-old Tunisian immigrant died in the Vincennes centre on Saturday, and police said he died from a heart attack while alone in his bedroom.

An investigation into his death has been opened, but the MRAP organisation against racism said the death showed that detention conditions in French deportation centres were poor.

"This one too many death is to be blamed on the obsessive, cruel, brutal and inhuman policy that criminalises immigration," the MRAP said in a statement.

The French government has said it is aiming to expel 26,000 illegal immigrants in 2008 after missing its goal of 25,000 last year.
Link here:

Nations are out of humane touch. France wants Immigrants entering by professional reasons but not for Humanitarian or searching for a better life.


Apparently they forgot the Freedom, Democracy and rights for Individuals. I am hoping that France remembered the legacy of FREDERIC AUGUSTE BARTHOLDI.

PARIS – France's first immigration minister claimed success Thursday for his no-nonsense policy on illegal immigration, saying the number of expulsions increased 80 percent this year while the number of people living illegally went down.

Brice Hortefeux said he expected the Europe Union to follow France's example and adopt an immigration pact to coordinate policies when France assumes the rotating presidency July 1. He said the pact would include an accord among the 27-member body not to undertake a mass legalization of migrants.

On Wednesday, the EU parliament adopted new rules for expelling illegal immigrants. However, the measures do not address issues like asylum, prevention or tackling problems at the source – all encompassed in the French pact.
Hortefeux, among the most controversial members of the government, insisted that Europe largely shares French concerns over illegal immigration.

France seeks to choose its immigrants with an emphasis on those with skills and visas enabling them to work. Their ranks were up by 36.7 percent over the past year, Hortefeux said at a news conference marking his first year on the job. France wants half of its immigrants to be entering for professional reasons by 2012.

He said France expelled 80 percent more illegal immigrants in the first five months of 2008, compared with the same period last year. From June 2007 to May 2008 it expelled 29,729 illegal aliens.

The number of voluntary departures was up 374 percent over the past year, and 38 percent so far in 2008, Hortefeux said, suggesting that immigrants living in France without papers “now understand our rules.”

“France is managing to calmly master this migratory flux,” he said.

Overall, he estimated there are 8 percent fewer illegal aliens in France today than before he took office. Officials say there are 200,000 to 400,000 people living in France illegally.

Hortefeux was optimistic about the EU's adoption of a French-proposed immigration pact, saying it could happen as early as October – halfway into the French presidency.

Hortefeux's ministry also aims to preserve the French national identity and to attack the migratory flux in countries that are the source of illegal immigration. France has signed development pacts with five African countries this year – Tunisia, Senegal, Benin, Gabon and the Republic of Congo.