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IMMIGRATION

French university cancels lectures after migrants set up home on campus

A French university has taken the rather extreme measure of suspending lectures on one of its campuses after refugees and asylum seekers set up home on the site.

French university cancels lectures after migrants set up home on campus
Photo: AFP
In a move that might be deemed slightly over the top, lessons were suspended at the University of Reims Champagne Ardenne (URCA) in northeastern France on Monday “until further notice” because of the presence of around 40 migrants on the campus, according to French media reports
 
The measure, which affected around 8,000 students, banned access to the premises of the Croix-Rouge campus until “conditions of security have been re-established,” said the president of the university Guillaume Gellé on Sunday night. 
 
“I demand security for all concerned,” added Gellé. “You can see in this camp there are children and minors.”
 
(AFP)
 
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The incident comes just two weeks after the new term started at the university of law, economics, arts and social sciences, after the summer break. 
 
France's main student union, Unef, called for “the families to be moved out of the Croix-Rouge campus of the University of Reims Champagne Ardenne.” 
 
(AFP)
 
The same people were “pushed to leave their makeshift shelters” in the town's St John Perse park, which locals recently labelled a “mini Calais”.
 
“We call on the local authorities, the mayor of Reims and the district to urgently house these families,” said Unef. 
 
 
 

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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