CHERBOURG, France, 22 August — France’s Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy vowed to quickly push through new laws to crack down on illegal immigration as well as boost police presence in this channel port that has seen a swift rise in illegal refugees trying to cross over to Britain.
Sarkozy, the No. 2 man in the government, made the pledge in a meeting with angry local officials, who vowed this month to make combating human trafficking a priority after police detained a group of illegal Iraqi Kurd migrants here who had been released just days before.
Cherbourg council President Jean-Francois Legrand said Sarkozy promised to propose reforms "as soon as Parliament resumes work after the summer recess."
"The minister also promised to tighten measures against human smugglers," he said. More and more illegal migrants are testing their luck in Cherbourg, combing the port in the hopes of finding a spot on a truck that will take them to Britain, where many hope to seek political asylum.
Sarkozy also promised to deploy a group of paramilitary police in Cherbourg, possibly increase border police, and add another 15 or so related personnel such as interpreters.
Mayor Bernard Cazeneuve insists the refugee situation has worsened in his port town since France and Britain reached a joint agreement to close the controversial Sangatte refugee camp near Calais by April 2003. He has vowed he will not let Cherbourg become "the next Sangatte."
Meanwhile, the "iron curtain" or the "wall of shame", a green metal fence erected to separate two communities in northern France has ignited a furious debate and called into question the country’s famed commitment to egalite.
Two meters high and blockading a street used as a shortcut between Douai and its slightly leafier and wealthier neighbor, Cuincy, the barrier has become both a practical obstruction and a symbol of class divisions. Complaining of prejudice, affronted residents on the wrong side of the tracks have christened the area "Alcatraz".
The 30 meter-long fence was put up by the municipality of Cuincy, a town of less than 7,000 people and one which itself is hardly a magnet for France’s millionaires. Most residents are workers employed by the biggest employers, Nestle and Renault which assembles its Megane Scenic model here.
They have long complained about the neighboring council estate which, they claim, is a hotbed of drug-dealing with swearing youths who drive fast cars, play loud music and keep the law-abiding awake until 4 a.m.
Although relations between the two communities had been strained few in Douai seem to have expected the scale of the reaction from Cuincy. When, on July 31, construction workers arrived, some of the those in the council housing on the rue des Cytises thought the town hall was doing them a favor by putting in huge tubs of flowers.
Instead they found themselves having to make a detour of up to a mile to visit the shops, reach the bus stop or go to the doctor. Cuincy-dwellers, too, have been inconvenienced — by the fence, which bars the route to one local cemetery.
Now disabused, the Douai residents have stirred up a storm of protest, circulating a petition demanding the removal of the fence, and provoking front page headlines in the French press.
"They’ve ghettoized us," one resident, Yvelise Chatel, told French TV. "They’ve herded us in with an attitude that says ‘you stay there and we stay here, everyone stays in their own place." (The Independent)
