Getting tough on immigration: French border police in PACA put on full alert

At night, the migrants camp in the Ventimiglia railway station, where there is a plug for their phones © Clicsouris

In the Alpes-Maritimes, the PAF border controllers based at the French-Italian border have warned that an influx of North African migrants arriving from the Italian town of Ventimiglia is starting to produce serious, and potentially lasting, consequences.

Frédéric Guérin, a representative from the Côte d'Azur’s United Police Union SGP-FO, has complained to the press that the PAF is on the verge of a crisis as a result of the excessive amount of paperwork resulting from stopping and questioning hundreds of Tunisian refugees who have, since the revolution in their country, been attempting to cross into France.

In larger coastal towns, like Cannes and Nice, the situation has, according to Guérin, now been declared ‘critical’ by the Compagnie d’Intervention de Nice, because civilian police staff are struggling to cope with the administration work being caused by the 40 illegal immigrants that are caught everyday coming into France from Italy.

In March, the regional police service in the Côte d’Azur tried to relieve the pressure by sending 150 CRS officers to assist the 300 regional border controllers. However, another spokesperson from the PAF was less than enthusiastic, pointing out that the new personnel were not trained to handle the ‘red tape’ that was involved with carrying out their judicial and administrative tasks.

The response from l'Elysée has been swift and clear: anyone found at the border without the right documents should be denied entry and sent back to Ventimiglia, without any consideration of the individual's status or health. And, under state approval, this is what the majority of border police are now doing in the Alpes-Maritimes.

The European Commission are less than impressed, however, and last week, they came down on the French government's handling of situation, accusing them of violating the open border policy (Schengen agreement) operating between certain member states in the EU.

In a press conference in Brussels, the Commissioner in charge of Home Affairs, Cecilia Malmström, stated that, as there is officially no borders in the Schengen area into which France falls, the French immigration authorities are not entitled to refuse the North African refugees coming from Italy. Only in the event of serious public safety threat would they be able to exert such a policy and this would require EU council approval before action could be taken.

Despite the criticism, the French are refusing to back down and Sarkozy's Minister of the Interior, Claude Guéant, has responded to Malmström's attack by telling press that the government have followed all the guidelines stipulated under EU law and is within its rights to exert control at the border. He pointed out that in the Schengen area border checks can be conducted within a limited 20 km stretch along the inland boundaries and that the French border service are complying to this restriction.

Guéant went on to say that under European Union rules, immigrants should be cared for by their port-of-entry country, which in this case is Italy.

On the other side of the border, the official position is in stark contrast to the one found in France. After weeks of lamenting the situation, Gaetano Scullino, mayor of Ventimiglia, has decided to open a temporary shelter that will provide food, electricity and 1,500 beds to North Africa immigrants who have no shelter.

The European Commission are now also trying to actively tackle the situation and are in ongoing negotiations with various member states to offer asylum to the thousands of mainly Somali, Eritrean and Sudanese refugees in Libya and Tunisia who cannot be returned to their countries because of the armed conflict. Furthermore, MEPs have urged that the EU must put in place an action plan for the resettlement of refugees in Europe in general whilst at the same time implement measures to reduce unemployment and raise living standards in the migrants' countries of origin.

AA