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FRANCE-MIGRANTS-TRIAL
Trio on trial for helping migrants enter France
GAP, France, May 31, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Three people appeared in a French
court Thursday on charges of illegally assisting a group of migrants trying
to cross into the country from Italy, a case that has fuelled protests that
prosecutors are punishing a “crime of solidarity”.
Eleonara Laterza, a 27-year-old Italian student; Bastian Stauffer, 26, a
Swiss student; and Theo Buckmaster, a 23-year-old Swiss-Belgian, were
detained for 10 days in April after participating in a march of 100 activists
to escort some 20 migrants over an Alpine pass.
They were responding to a blockade set up by several dozen members of a
far-right group, Generation Identitaire (Identity Generation), at a nearby
pass to keep them out.
The trial is the latest involving activists trying to aid migrants on the
move through Europe, in protest at a tough new immigration law being pushed
by French President Emmanuel Macron.
About 120 leading French education, scientific and political figures
signed a tribune in French daily Le Monde this week supporting the three
activists, accusing prosecutors of flouting France’s constitutional promise
of fraternity and equality for all.
Several dozen protesters gathered outside the courthouse in Gap, southeast
France, as the proceedings opened to stage a “reverse trial” against the
government.
“We’re accusing the state and the government’s migrant policies,” said
Michel Rousseau of the Tous Migrants (We’re All Migrants) association.
Lawyers for the three told AFP they would seek to postpone the hearing
while awaiting a ruling from France’s top Constitutional Court on whether aid
to illegal immigrants should be considered a criminal offence.
They also hope to ease the terms of their conditional release from jail,
so they can pass end-of-term exams or return to their jobs.
The activists risk up to 10 years in prison and fines of up to 750,000
euros ($880,000), as well as a ban on entering France.
– Tougher laws –
Their trial comes a day after a 73-year-old Amnesty International volunteer
appeared in court in the southern city of Nice on charges of helping two
underage Africans illegally enter the country.
French lawmakers voted last month to soften laws criminalising acts of
solidarity with illegal migrants, to exempt those who provide them with free
food, shelter, medical care or legal advice.
Helping migrants illegally cross the border remains a crime, however.
The government argues that tighter controls are needed to check the rise of
anti-immigration populists who claim Europe has allowed in too many people
seeking a better life.
The law being debated in parliament aims to both cut waiting times for
asylum applications — to six months from around a year currently — and make
it easier to deport those turned down as “economic” migrants, as opposed to
those fleeing political strife.
NGOs have contrasted the treatment of the campaigners with that of
“Spiderman” Mamoudou Gassama, the illegal Malian migrant who was fast-tracked
for French citizenship this week after rescuing a young boy hanging from a
balcony in Paris. “A black person who saves a white person deserves praise, a
white person who helps a black person deserves prison,” said Giscard Destin,
a 23-year-old from Cameroon, at a rally to support the three activists in
nearby La Roche-de-Rame on Wednesday.
BSS/AFP/RY/1620 hrs