French protest tough-line immigration bill
More than 5,000 people marched through Paris yesterday to protest a tough immigration bill that critics say will favour only skilled immigrants.
France’s top Catholic official, who met Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, said the bill the government may soften when the parliamentary debate on it starts on Tuesday.
“There is a balance to be found between irresponsible laxism and a nearly xenophobic firmness,” said Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard after a meeting with Villepin that was also attended by the head of France’s Protestants, Jean-Arnold de Clermont.
In their meeting with the prime minister, the two church leaders “expressed a certain number of our questions on precise points", and Villepin “stressed that some of the remarks could be taken into account” during the debate, Ricard said. “I think some amendments will be filed during the debate.”
Meanwhile, some 5,200 people marched through Paris to protest the bill which, notably, proposes that France choose its immigrants – those with particular skills – and toughens conditions under which immigrants can bring their families to France.
About four dozen illegal immigrants occupied the Sainte-Chapelle, a chapel famed for its stained glass windows on the grounds of the Palais de Justice, before being evacuated by police.
Ricard said he was given assurances that, should a political asylum request be refused, the time limit to file an appeal could be extended from the 15 days currently in the bill.
He made no mention of critics’ primary concern with the bill, that it would allow France to hand-pick its immigrants, particularly the highly qualified.
The bill, tabled by Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, has raised concerns of human rights campaigners, religious leaders and others.
Catholics, Protestants and Orthodox leaders wrote last Tuesday to Villepin to express their “serious concerns.” Sarkozy, as well as President Jacques Chirac, have met with religious leaders on the bill.
Many on the left accuse Sarkozy of courting far-right voters. However, the interior minister responded on Thursday by saying that hand-picking immigrants will help fight racism, and the far right, by ensuring that immigrants are better integrated.
