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IMMIGRATION

Man caught smuggling migrants at Italy border

A Frenchman faces up to five years in prison after he was caught trying to smuggle a carload of migrants from Italy into France.

Man caught smuggling migrants at Italy border
The migrants were picked up in the northern Italian border town of Ventimiglia. Photo: Valery Hache/AFP

The 35-year-old man from Nice was crossing the Italian-French border on Monday night when police pulled him over, Le Parisien newspaper reported.

A source told the paper that the driver had been hanging around the northern Italian border town of Ventimiglia, where migrants congregate while trying to get into France.

When officers pulled over the man's car – an Audi A4 station wagon – they found nine migrants from Pakistan and Afghanistan crammed in the back.

They were reportedly trying to make their way through France to Calais, where they no doubt planned to join the thousands of people trying to smuggle themselves to the UK.

The driver of the car reportedly has a long criminal record, but this was the first time he was caught smuggling people.

He told police that he was simply working for “humanitarian purposes”. His passengers, however, claimed that he had told them he was a taxi driver and had charged them between €50 and €100.

The driver of the car was jailed in Nice, and risks a fine of up to €30,000 and up to five years in prison. The migrants, meanwhile, were taken back to the Italian side of the border.

People-smuggling has proved to be a money-earning option for some hard-up French people as migrants continue to flow through through the country on their way to northern Europe.

The Local reported in May how some business owners and even students in northern France have turned to the highly risky trade of trafficking migrants across the English Channel to the UK, just to make ends meet.

Some earn as much as €2,000 per person.
 

POLITICS

France vows to block EU-South America trade deal in current form

France has vowed to prevent a trade deal between the European Union and the South American Mercosur bloc from being signed with its current terms, as the country is rocked by farmer protests.

France vows to block EU-South America trade deal in current form

The trade deal, which would include agricultural powers Argentina and Brazil, is among a litany of complaints by farmers in France and elsewhere in Europe who have been blocking roads to demand better conditions for their sector.

They fear it would further depress their produce prices amid increased competition from exporting nations that are not bound by strict and costly EU environmental laws.

READ ALSO Should I cancel my trip to France because of farmers’ protests?

“This Mercosur deal, as it stands, is not good for our farmers. It cannot be signed as is, it won’t be signed as is,” Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire told broadcasters CNews and Europe 1.

The European Commission acknowledged on Tuesday that the conditions to conclude the deal with Mercosur, which also includes Paraguay and Uruguay, “are not quite there yet”.

The talks, however, are continuing, the commission said.

READ ALSO 5 minutes to understand French farmer protests

President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday that France opposes the deal because it “doesn’t make Mercosur farmers and companies abide by the same rules as ours”.

The EU and the South American nations have been negotiating since 2000.

The contours of a deal were agreed in 2019, but a final version still needs to be ratified.

The accord aims to cut import tariffs on – mostly European – industrial and pharmaceutical goods, and on agricultural products.

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