France forbids residents from aiding illegal immigrants

12:00 AM CDT on Friday, March 27, 2009

Elaine Ganley, The Associated Press

PARIS – It wasn't yet 8 a.m. when police knocked on Monique Pouille's door, searched her home and took her away – all because she recharged cellphones for illegal migrants.

The 59-year-old volunteer with several groups in the Calais region of northern France was put behind bars and interrogated for three hours.

The French government forbids aiding illegal migrants and sets quotas for arrests of those who do as it tries to control growing clandestine immigration. This year's target: 5,000 arrests.

Authorities contend the measure is aimed at those who profit from those in France illegally. Humanitarian associations and others point to a concerted effort to harass volunteers who provide a lifeline, or a simple kindness, to illegal immigrants.

The Immigration Ministry, created when President Nicolas Sarkozy took office in 2007, proudly makes public its yearly expulsion quota – the 2008 goal of 26,000 expulsions went far beyond to 29,796 – but, until now, there had been no talk of quotas for those who help those in the country illegally.

Humanitarian associations plan demonstrations in major cities April 8. A measure to modify the wording of the article on assistance is to be debated April 30.

"In France today there is a real climate of intimidation against those who help" illegal immigrants, said Catherine Coutelle, a Socialist lawmaker behind the bid to modify the law.

Up to 1,800 migrants hoping to sneak into Britain in trucks can be found in the Calais region. Volunteers try to ease their suffering.

"We feel that volunteers are being surveyed, tracked" to discourage working with illegal immigrants, said the Rev. Jean-Pierre Boutoille, a Catholic priest who has long helped migrants in Calais.

At the southern end of France, in the Mediterranean port city of Marseille, police descended on an Emmaus community Feb. 17 in search of illegal immigrants, a day after the arrest of one man without papers who had been given lodging there. An official from the organization was held for questioning, but no charges were filed.

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