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WORLD NEWS A9
Wednesday 27 December 2017
Macron gets tough as France struggles to deal with migrants
Migrants queue outside a facility to apply for asylum, in Paris, Thursday, Dec. 21, 2017. The French accepted, government of- notably expediting asylum
government is scrambling to meet President Emmanuel Macron’s deadline to get migrants off ficials say. demands but also doubling
France’s streets by year’s end. The huge makeshift camp to 90 days the time a per-
in the English Channel port son without papers can be
(AP Photo/Thibault Camus) city of Calais, dismantled held in a holding center,
last year, was emblem- the last step before expul-
atic of the problems. Its sion — an approach the
residents were dispersed government says is “bal-
around France, but others anced” and “efficient.”
keep coming in hopes of Macron said in a speech
reaching Britain, and are in July in Orleans before a
finding a rude welcome. group of new citizens that
France’s highest admin- he wanted people “off the
istrative body said the streets, out of the woods”
migrants have been sub- by the end of 2017. “I want
jected to inhuman and de- emergency lodgings ev-
grading conditions, and an erywhere.” While his words
investigation ordered by conveyed humanity, the
the interior minister found underlying message bites.
that it was “plausible” that Macron has made clear he
police used excessive force wouldn’t accept econom-
against migrants, as Human ic migrants in France, wants
Rights Watch maintained. those who don’t qualify
A bill overhauling asylum for asylum expelled and
and immigration policy will doesn’t want them even
be debated in the spring, trying to come to France.q
By ELAINE GANLEY or Germany, migrants keep
Associated Press making their way to France.
PARIS (AP) — It’s getting In Paris alone, police have
colder, the clock is ticking evacuated around 30,000
and regional authorities people camping on side-
are scrambling to meet walks in the last two years.
President Emmanuel Ma- No one doubts that
cron’s deadline: get mi- France’s system of dealing
grants off France’s streets with migrants needs fixing,
and out of forest hideouts with a perennial housing
by year’s end. shortage and long wait
That won’t likely happen, times in applying for asy-
and Macron’s govern- lum.
ment is now tightening the “Living in the street. Living in
screws: ramping up expul- a tent. Sometimes you get
sions, raising pressure on food. Sometimes you not
economic migrants and al- get food,” said Samsoor
lowing divisive ID checks in Rasooli, a 25-year-old Af-
emergency shelters. ghan standing in line since
Critics contend that Ma- 6 a.m. to apply for asylum
cron’s increasingly tough at a Paris facility, where
policy on migrants — some spend the night on
though wrapped in a the sidewalk, strewn with
cloak of goodwill — con- filth, to keep their place.
tradicts his image as a hu- The door closed at mid-
manist who defeated an day, the 100 places allot-
anti-immigrant populist for ted that day for applicants
the presidency, and has filled.
crossed a line passed by “It’s winter. I can’t sleep in
no other president in the the street,” Rasooli said.
land that prides itself as the Asylum opens the way for
cradle of human rights. temporary housing, but
From snowy Alpine passes only one-third of the 95,000
to the borders with Spain applicants this year were
