Reply #68: France stops all Italian trains carrying north African immigrants [View All]

[pinboy3niner]

Source: The Telegraph

France on Sunday prevented all trains carrying illegal immigrants entering its borders from Italy.


By Peter Allen, Paris 5:08PM BST 17 Apr 2011



In dramatic scenes in Menton, in south east France, border guards including riot police halted hundreds of mainly North African men who have crossed from Libya and Tunisia.


The trains, on which they travelled and which also contained political activists calling for better rights for immigrants, were attempting to cross from the nearby Italian border station of Ventimiglia.


"Our orders are to cancel all services from Italy," said a spokesman for the French national train operator SNCF.


He said the trains had been stopped on the orders of the Alpes-Maritimes Prefecture "until further notice".

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It was the latest chapter in a bitter diplomatic dispute caused by the arrival of thousands of immigrants in Italy from Arab countries like Tunisia and Libya which have undergone revolutions this year.

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/8457138/France-stops-all-Italian-trains-carrying-north-African-immigrants.html