France holds protest rally against deportation of Chechen illegal migrants

The French city of Nancy (Department of Meurthe and Moselle) has hosted a protest rally against deportation of illegal migrants from Chechnya. About 150 persons took part in the event.

As French media report, according to the organization named "Education without Borders", which has initiated the event, last week the police detained a Chechen woman of 30 who was taking her two children, aged 10 and 11, to school. And yesterday, on May 5, three families of illegal migrants from the Chechen Republic were detained.

"It starts to resemble round-ups," said Vickie Rebouchis, press secretary of the above human rights NGO.

"Illegal migrants are in the state of stress and fear, despite their arrival to France as to the country of human rights. They are not even given a chance to apply for a refuge," the representative of the NGO has added.

The Prefecture of the Department of Meurthe and Moselle has confirmed that on Monday, "according to the law, six Russians of Chechen origin were arrested." The police note that the application on granting a refuge in the European Union should be considered by the country initially entered by the applicant, and in many cases the Chechens had entered the EU territory through Poland, the RIA "Novosti" reports.