Police clear Paris camp as migrant debate flares
Security forces cleared more than 1,000 people from a sprawling migrant camp in the French capital yesterday, the latest in a series of episodes that have thrust the issue of illegal immigration back into the spotlight.
About 1,700 people, mainly from Sudan, Somalia and Eritrea, were living in the "Millenaire", or Millennium, camp underneath the main Paris ring road near the Porte de la Villette in the northeast of the capital.
But regional prefect Michel Cadot later said that just 1,016 migrants had been removed, since many residents had fled after learning the dawn operation was imminent.
They will be housed temporarily at more than 20 sites across the Paris region while the authorities check their identities, Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said in a statement.
The operation came just days after a young Malian was honoured with fast-track citizenship following his daring rescue of a child hanging from a balcony.
It also coincided with the trial of a 72-year-old woman in the Mediterranean city of Nice for helping two Guinean teenagers cross into the country from Italy.
Three other people will face trial today for helping migrants enter France illegally, even as Grenoble this week honoured a farmer convicted of guiding migrants across the Alps by bestowing him with the city's official medal.
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