Immigrants die in new Paris fire
BBC News:
A fire has killed seven people - including four children - in a building housing African immigrants in Paris, just days after a similar lethal blaze.
Officials say about 12 families from Ivory Coast were living there in deplorable conditions. The blaze happened in the central Marais area.
On Friday, 17 West Africans died in another Paris apartment block fire, and a similar blaze killed 24 in April.
The government has now ordered a review of housing policy for immigrants.
President Jacques Chirac expressed sadness at the latest fire and ordered an inquiry.
It broke out at 2200 (2000 GMT) on Monday and firefighters took 90 minutes to control it.
A child who jumped from a window in the building died in hospital. Six other bodies were found in the ruins.
Friday's deadly fire - also in a building used by African immigrants - provoked street protests in Paris.
Fourteen of the 17 who died in that blaze were children.
Members of the African community took to the streets over the weekend, urging the authorities to provide better housing for immigrants.
They were joined by left-wing activists and pressure groups who accused French leaders of neglect.
Why on earth are the French allowing so many African immigrants into their country when they obviously have no place to put them?
Deadly Paris fires highlight housing crisis
Paris Fire Kills Seven African Immigrants
posted by Adam Lawson @ 10:03 AM
1 comments
1 Comments:
A good question.
I think it is better to think of these people as asylum seekers and refugees, because otherwise you'd also have to ask how it makes sense for France -- or any country, for that matter -- to allow so many "immigrants" who are destitute and therefore rely completely on French taxpayers for housing and just about everything else.
I recall reading before that the French do not often resort to deportation in these cases. So it seems word about that has gotten around, and foreigners have learned to exploit this -- they just come, and the French put them up. In squalid firetraps, apparently, but for most I suppose it's still better than what they had back home. In fact now children are often sent alone:
[Child immigrants test France]
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4226527.stm
Which is about as cynical and exploitative as you can get.
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