France launches investigation as 124 migrants land in Corsica
France has launched an investigation and called for a European summit to combat illegal immigration, a day after 124 self-proclaimed Kurds landed in Corsica.
Immigration Minister Eric Besson underscored that the French Mediterranean island could not be allowed to become an entry point for illegal immigrants and mooted a European conference as an investigation began into who the traffickers were.
The migrants, who claimed they were Kurds from Syria, were dropped off near the southern town of Bonifacio on Friday by a boat which then departed, officials said.
It was the biggest known mass-scale landing on the island of migrants, who usually try to enter Europe by sea through Sicily, Malta, Greece and Spain's Canary Islands.
Groups of similar numbers - but made up mostly of Somalis - arrived in Malta this time last year but the number of arrivals fell later in the year, especially when Italy started to immediately return to Libya any migrants found on the High Seas. However there have also been reports of an increase in the number of crossings of the Mediterranean from Benghazi towards Crete and Greece.
EU President Herman Van Rompuy announced during his visit to Malta earlier this month that the EU would hold a summit on immigration in June.
The migrants who arrived in Corsica, 57 men, 29 women -- five of them pregnant -- and 38 children were initially lodged in a gymnasium in Bonifacio but then flown to mainland France to be housed in detention centres in cities such as Marseille and Lyon.
Each "case will be individually assessed", the immigration ministry said, adding that the migrants "will get an interpreter, a medical check-up, information on aid in case of voluntary return and legal help".
Besson earlier said some of the migrants identified themselves as Kurds from Syria and others said they were from North Africa.
Some of the immigrants resisted being shifted out from the gymnasium but were forced into buses. Many had refused a meal late Friday in protest against plans to relocate them.
Several rights groups slammed the government response. The League of Human Rights (LDH) said their transfer to detention centres went against the tenets of the French Republic.
"They are not 'illegals' living underground in France but refugees who after having arrived on French territory have the absolute right ... to seek asylum," it said.
And Ava Basta (That's Enough), a local organisation espousing racial equality, denounced their transfer, saying it would have preferred them to "benefit from hospitality and solidarity that Corsicans have displayed in the past".
But Corsica's prefect, Stephane Bouillon, said the immigrants could demand asylum and added that they were being moved from the gymnasium to ensure "better security and more salubrious surroundings".
Bouillon, the regional governor, said an investigation had been launched "since they were clearly brought in by traffickers whom we are now seeking actively ... to dismantle such networks".
About 80 adults were grilled by police before being sent to the detention centres. They said they had left Syria on trucks for Tunisia, where they boarded a cargo vessel bound for Corsica.
They also told police they had wanted to go to Scandinavia, Ajaccio's state prosecutor Thomas Pison said.
The immigrants were all devoid of identity papers but appeared in good health and were suitably dressed for European winter weather, Corsica's governor Bouillon said.
"They said they did the journey in several stages across the Mediterranean and were transported up to Corsica on a cargo vessel," he added.
A source close to the case said the vessel in question was either Russian or Ukrainian.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) yesterday urged France to ensure that each of the self-proclaimed Kurds was allowed to seek asylum and to ensure a "complete and fair examination" of each case.
"The UNHCR calls upon the French authorities to ensure that each person seeking the protection of France can access a process seeking asylum which will ensure them fair and complete examination of each case," a statement from the agency's French office said.
Yesterday, the immigration ministry said a second vessel suspected of being involved in the mass landing had been identified and was being checked.
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sean grima
Jan 28th 2010, 13:17
you would defend it against someone who is attacking it. the immigrants are only invading in your paranoid imagination
Trevor Lorenzo Mizzi
Jan 27th 2010, 19:39
@ sean grima,
" invader" - we are talking about people who come with what they are dressed with!!! "
I repeat, when it comes down to the crunch , defend your homeland from invasion of any form shape or size.
Trevor Lorenzo Mizzi
Jan 27th 2010, 19:12
@ sean grima,
Corrosive cultures need no weapons or fancy dress to degrade the host culture.
It is actually worse now than in the time of those two historic sieges, as the enemy was kept at bay in both sieges of yore . Africans have a rich 300,000 sq. km continent to live on, they should get their house in order and stop blaming and bothering everyone else for their massive failures.Bringing them here willy nilly in any quantity is doing no one a favour including the africans themselves. Losing one's culture and way of life to be replaced with an inferior one is no bargain. Help them in their homeland, as the easy fix they chosen by invading other lands is not sustainable, sensible or fair to tax payers.
sean grima
Jan 25th 2010, 20:09
"invader" - we are talking about people who come with what they are dressed with!!!
Trevor Lorenzo Mizzi
Jan 25th 2010, 16:25
@sean grima,
"The majority of maltese do not reflect the majority of comments on these blogs. that is because the new, young generations (whether young in age, or spirit) have a different mind set to to the old-fasioned, anachronistic menatlity you people have."
I love how you lump everyone in Malta of a certain age group together like that, it shows your false enlightened liberalism for what it is. Giving away the nation of your birth on a silver platter to any invader has never been or ever will be the avant -garde hip right thing to do, not in the past, present or future. No matter how you choose to dress it up and to try to justify this action to your self and others under any guise.Sensible level headed people of any age group, in any country, do not want their nation invaded by anyone, and no amount of untruths and self delusion can change that.
The maltese mindset of 1565 was the same mindset of 1941 and it is the mindset of today when it comes down to the crunch of defending your homeland from invasion of any form shape or size.
Sébastien VASSALLO
Jan 25th 2010, 09:12
I am sorry but what did you expect? France to say: "it's ok it doesn't matter". We should be happy that France, a big country with a rather big international power - has decided to work toward the resolution of this problem now.
France has - correct me if I am wrong - in the past taken quite a lot of immigrants that have entered illegally in Malta so you can't say they did nothing so far. Why blaming France now?
France is also facing illegal immigration coming from mainland too. It is much more of a problem than those coming from the sea, so it is perfectly understandable that the politics in France focus on this kind of illegal immigration. What exactly did you expect from France, to send its army in Valletta Harbour the very first time an illegal immigrant boat was spotted? This is a EU matter and has to be solved within the EU. Now if one country takes the lead on this issue, let's be thankful rather then bitter.
Sébastien VASSALLO (Franco-maltese)
sean grima
Jan 25th 2010, 09:03
@charles sammut - true, but unlike corsicans and goiztans, kurds are persecuted in countries like turkey and iraq.
@ TL mizzi, lgalea: the majority of maltese do not reflect the majority of comments on these blogs. that is because the new, young generations (whether young in age, or spirit) have a different mind set to to the old-fasioned, anachronistic menatlity you people have. your arguments are simplistic as they are restricted to the fact that these people come here without a visa, which, as I have repeatedly explained, does not make their stay illegal. wiser people, including maltese and world leaders, have looked beyond the mere absence of a visa, and agreed that a country will not send a person back to his/her country unless it is safe, whether or not s/he came her without a visa.
lgalea
Jan 24th 2010, 21:36
sean grima
We are not ready to allow them to take OUR territory come what may and we shall repel them whether you and your ilk like it or not. It;s those who bury their heads in the sand that are ridiculous sean.
lgalea
Jan 24th 2010, 21:31
Trevor Lorenzo Mizzi
Very good comments.
louise vella
Totally agree with you. The only way to stop the ILLEGAL immigrats invasion is to send every one of them back to get the message that they shall not be accepted because they are ILLEGAL.
sean grima
Perhaps they should appoint you because you seem to be an expert in welcoming ILLEGAL immigrats.
A Bugeja
Jan 24th 2010, 20:23
@ Jean-Pierre Aquilina & R Curmi:
Very well said. My thoughts exactly.
Trevor Lorenzo Mizzi
Jan 24th 2010, 17:18
@ sean grima,
Stop being a naive spokesperson for these invaders.
It is clear no one in Malta wants these people and it is now abundantly clear no European nation wants these illegal invasions. The tide of what little sympathy there was for these illegals is changing rather quickly and common sense is prevailing France has had enough of its failed multicultural experiment as the Paris riots by maghreb and african people can attest to. You are convincing no one with your inane arguments, level headed thinking people are in the majority and rightly so.
Joe Vella
Jan 24th 2010, 14:55
As an ex emigrant that I am glad to be back home.
One who had to go to all the red tape to emigrate and ONE who needed help when landing with no help I repeat NO HELP not even the church helped me over there.
Was called a 'THEYGO' meaning for the locals don't worry they go back home because he is from the south of Europe.
When are we going to realize that this island is our only home and it is being taken like the rest of Europe. Then what?
Charles Sammut
Jan 24th 2010, 14:51
@ sean grima
"it seems that nobody has stopped to think about the plight of these kurdish people, a nation without a territory of its own."
You are wrong. The Kurds have the territory, but it is not sovereign. The Kurds are in the same position as the Corsicans. The Corsicans have as much right as the Kurds to ask for asylum elsewhere because they have been fighting for independence from France for decades. The Fronte di Liberazione Naziunale Corsu has been responsible for various bomb attacks with the last one as recent as last year. Crackdowns on this separatist movement have been vicious as well.
Why don't we draw the Gozitans as well into the equation? They also have the territory but not the sovereignty. I mean, they get their fair share of illegal immigrants' landings, but they all get removed to Malta. This is not fair, Gozo should not be denied the opportunity to enhance its social fabric through multiculturalism and diversity.
sean grima
Jan 24th 2010, 14:17
france is a country which has been absorbing immigrants, especially from africa, for decades. these doomsday prophets are ridiculous.
John Portelli
Jan 24th 2010, 13:53
And we are called cry babies when we raise the issue. Yes illegal immigration is a threat to our small island societies like ours because it will destroy our way of life in a few years. Now France because it got 124 illegals want a summit.
sean grima
Jan 24th 2010, 13:42
it seems that nobody has stopped to think about the plight of these kurdish people, a nation without a territory of its own.
Charles Sammut
Jan 24th 2010, 13:38
France has very serious social problems with immigrants.
Immigrants are responsible for a disproportionately large share of crime in France. But they stick together. They protect their own, the immigrants, I mean, not the French. If the police venture into the ghettoes, all hell breaks loose. The state has lost control over whole neighbourhoods.
But you don't see this on Euronews or CNN.
louise vella
Jan 24th 2010, 13:21
For an example of the way naive and unthinking Maltese have been encouraging the influx of illegal immigrants to Malta, readers might wish to have a look at the Migrants' Solidarity Movement website www.migrantsmalta.org. It's full of do-gooder speak, but you won't find (a) the name of any of the persons involved; (b) the number of the membership or (c) how they are financed.
Graham Holme
Jan 24th 2010, 13:09
The writing is on the wall.The silent invasion will continue,until, we the European citizens,become the minority,the Islamification,of Europe,is under way.
John Attard
Jan 24th 2010, 13:05
So fast to raise the alarm?
Lets face it facts here. There are enough Muslims in Europe alone to rival that of a small middle-eastern nation. What must one do in order to safeguard his borders??
Quiz Time!
Choose one answer: (10 marks)
1) Adopt EU policy and do nothing.
2) Adopt modernistic leading methods and, for fear of being a racist, do nothing.
3) Fear NGOs and armchair organisations like UNH-whatever-R and do nothing.
4) Cry out for help from your loving, cherished, supportive and totally die-for-you-for-anything neighbour states, and do nothing.
5) Cover your eyes, sing the theme song of Disney's 'The Little Mermaid' and pretend the problem goes away.
If you answered 1-5, you should go away right now and rethink your life.
If you answered "Install a hard-back government that is willing to safeguard its borders and protect its cultural heritage without violating human rights and employing a multinational CIA-style prevention mission to halt traffickers" you are instantly and immediately my most favourite person.
Oscar Cassar
Jan 24th 2010, 13:03
very interesting :-)
Ian Waugh
Jan 24th 2010, 13:01
@ Charles Flores
Excusez-moi M. Flores. Je suis d'accord avec vous. Une seule règle pour un. Une autre règle pour un autre! Les Français sont aveugles. Ils ne reconnaissent pas Malte. Parfois, ils oublient les Britanniques aussi bien! Nous sommes habitués à cela! Nous oublions les Français quand nous voulons! Ils sont dans une panique.
Skuża dan jinterferixxi barrani! 124 huwa xejn! Issa paniku!
"France has launched an investigation and called for a European summit to combat illegal immigration" Malta has been battling this issue for years as have the Brits along the English channel.
I suppose now the French have squawked, they will say "jump" and the rest of the EU will say "how high?"
[excuse my poor Maltese - its my feeble attempt at 'entente cordiale'!]
louise vella
Jan 24th 2010, 12:39
I'm expecting the reaction of Medecins sans Frontiers and the other French NGOs which have over the years criticised Malta for not being welcoming enough to illegal immigrants. I'm expecting the reaction of all those French members of the European Parliament who in the past ciriticised Malta.
sandro pace
Jan 24th 2010, 12:05
An egg in the face of those fellow naive Maltese, probably brainless, who used to comment that we are exaggerating on this issue.
We, a 16 mile island, used to get those amounts weekly (hopefully never again, whatever).
No one likes chaos on his sea boarders, and unplanned massive illegal visitors in a random manner. The French and Italians are realising that all this is unsustainable. But what do we Maltese know about order and sustainability? It's not in us.
Time for all European leaders to start put their citizens interest over any other humanitarian concerns.
Anthony Debono
Jan 24th 2010, 11:20
Maybe, being Napoleon Bonaparte fans, they landed purely to visit his birthplace. Who knows?
louise vella
Jan 24th 2010, 10:53
The landings in Corsica follow the same pattern we have seen in Malta the last eight years. Traffickers get paid to bring illegal immigrants close to a European country. Then do-gooder NGOs and UNHCR start beating the same drums: refugees, asylum seekers, right of asylum, children and pregnant women ... The illegal immigrants are already briefed and kick up a fuss for the cameras, with protests and posters. It's high time the navies of the EU follow the example set by Berlusconi and joined together to push back the boats to where they came from. Otherwise the invasion will never stop but get bigger.
Vince Cuatajar
Jan 24th 2010, 10:48
Look the goverment they only think look after them self. If they do European summit the public is pay for every think and the Goverment live every think going as normal. What they should do they send them back to them on Country. There is now League of Human Rights. So were is our Human Rights as Maltese born. Becuase of this League migrants we are suffer alot of depts.
Brian Farrugia
Jan 24th 2010, 10:47
@R Curmi
Africans wept when the British left and wish they never did.Sucking on the wealth? What are all those immigrants doing throughout Europe.Let us hope the British awake and rise again,otherwise we along with the rest of Europe are doomed.
R Curmi
Jan 24th 2010, 10:18
Lets all pray brothers and sisters that hopefully the illegals found another route and aviod us but go straight to france. France was one of the great countries that sucked on the wealth of africa, now french is one of them countries who should shoulder them all together with Italy, England and Netherland. We never did anything wrong to africa
Jean-Pierre Aquilina
Jan 24th 2010, 10:13
It's amazing how quick our 'neighbour & partner' responded when the problem hit home. It's OK for Malta "...to become an entry point for illegal immigrants", but apparantly not for Corsica.
Malcolm Farrugia
Jan 24th 2010, 09:58
Finally other countries are/will be facing illegal migration influx. Hope this will go on in other countries too, maybe finally it want be only Malta and Italy demanding the EU to make an end to this dumping we are facing.
Charles Flores
Jan 24th 2010, 09:41
What's the fuss all about, Monsieur? The tiny island of Malta has been receiving one boatload of irregular immigrants after the other for years now and France hardly bothered to acknowledge the problem, let alone call for a European Union summit! Now, with the very first boatload of immigrants reaching the big island of French-owned Corsica, there is thunder and indignation. Excusez moi, but you are now last in the queue.... or is there a Premier League of nations and lesser leagues for lesser nations within the same EU?
victor pulis
Jan 24th 2010, 09:27
Is it so difficult in this age of technology to identify the ship which transported them to Corsica? Are there no records of ships' movements? There are satellites up there in orbit which can read a car's number plate or spot a golf ball on the green. Where there's a will there's a way but it seems there is no will.
Alexander Galea
Jan 24th 2010, 09:25
Wow, how quick the French authorities were to cry out because a landing has hit them once. Till now, as long as it was Malta or Italy, the French together with a bunch of European bureaucrats always sat back or actually criticised the treatment of immigrants rather than helping out. Now they are calling for a European summit, hahaha - big joke. We do not need inconclusive discussions but serious action.
L. Galea
Jan 24th 2010, 09:13
Why are the French so enraged? Do they expect us to take everybody? Corsica is an island and so is Malta. Summit Yeah right!!!!
Noel Cutajar
Jan 24th 2010, 08:27
How quick!! Where were they when we had huge problems with illegal immigration? Do they expect now burden sharing as well? This really shows that the EU is just another club for the rich and powerful...the rest are just back benchers!!
Andrew Borg-Cardona
Jan 24th 2010, 08:12
Wow, an investigation, no less, because 124 immigrants landed on French soil. Now maybe the Northern countries will extract their digits and start doing something to help countries like us, who have to deal with these humanitarian problems regularly, while the comfy Northern states look on. Vive La France.
louise vella
Jan 24th 2010, 08:05
Malta is no longer alone in raising the alarm. Even big countries like France are now understanding Malta’s plight, because the crisis has reached their shores too. France has called for a European summit a day after 124 illegal immigrants landed in Cosrsica. Thousands and thousands of illegal immigrants have landed in Malta in the last few years.
We agree with the French. Neither Corsica nor Malta can “be allowed to become an entry point for illegal immigrants”.
The illegal immigrants “told police they had wanted to go to Scandinavia”. As the Scandinavians are among Europe’s most active do-gooders, they should take the illegal immigrants to Sweden, Norway and Finland.
“The immigrants were all devoid of identity papers but appeared in good health and were suitably dressed for European winter weather”!! We know this story.
"The UNHCR calls upon the French authorities to ensure that each person seeking the protection of France can access a process seeking asylum which will ensure them fair and complete examination of each case". We know these stories of UNHCR and other NGOs too.
E.Muscat
Jan 24th 2010, 07:31
It is quite obvious that the south is invading the north:the navies of the european mediterranean countries should come together (Spain,France,Italy,Greece,Malta,and Cyprus)
and return these migrants by force.The navies have nothing to do except chasing the girls in the home ports.Or else disband them and welcome all the arab african people traffikers operating out of turkish and arab ports.Just tell them loudly we are ready for occupation, after their forefathers fought the now fruitless wars to conserve their liberty.The Kurds and the Somalis are 100 per cent muslim:europe,open your eyes!