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IMMIGRATION

Kids of illegal immigrants can go to school: Sweden

Undocumented immigrant children in Sweden will be allowed to go to school as of July 1st next year, the Swedish government announced on Wednesday after striking a deal with the opposition Green Party.

Kids of illegal immigrants can go to school: Sweden

“Children without a residency permit will have the right to education” from kindergarten to secondary school, it said in a statement.

Sweden’s use of personal identity numbers has essentially barred children of illegal immigrants from public education, and schools have been required to contact police if registration requests were made for an undocumented child.

The new law scraps that requirement, but schooling will still not be mandatory for children of illegal immigrants.

“All children have the right to go to school … and their right (to do so) will become legal,” Education Minister Jan Björklund said at a press conference.

For undocumented children, going to school “means being normal, (it brings) stability, routines to an often precarious existence,” said the Green Party’s spokeswoman on immigration, Maria Ferm.

The government will provide an annual budget of 50 million kronor ($7.4 million) starting in 2014, to help the municipalities where the children go to school. Half the annual amount has been set aside for next year.

Between 2,000 and 3,000 children will be affected by the new law, according

to Björklund.

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IMMIGRATION

France ‘will not welcome migrants’ from Lampedusa: interior minister

France "will not welcome migrants" from the island, Gérald Darmanin has insisted

France 'will not welcome migrants' from Lampedusa: interior minister

France will not welcome any migrants coming from Italy’s Lampedusa, interior minister Gérald Darmanin has said after the Mediterranean island saw record numbers of arrivals.

Some 8,500 people arrived on Lampedusa on 199 boats between Monday and Wednesday last week, according to the UN’s International Organisation for
Migration, prompting European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen to travel there Sunday to announce an emergency action plan.

According to Darmanin, Paris told Italy it was “ready to help them return people to countries with which we have good diplomatic relations”, giving the
example of Ivory Coast and Senegal.

But France “will not welcome migrants” from the island, he said, speaking on French television on Tuesday evening.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has called on Italy’s EU partners to share more of the responsibility.

The recent arrivals on Lampedusa equal more than the whole population of the tiny Italian island.

The mass movement has stoked the immigration debate in France, where political parties in the country’s hung parliament are wrangling over a draft law governing new arrivals.

France is expected to face a call from Pope Francis for greater tolerance towards migrants later this week during a high-profile visit to Mediterranean city Marseille, where the pontiff will meet President Emmanuel Macron and celebrate mass before tens of thousands in a stadium.

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