France must respect asylum rights

The first refugees have made it by boat to Corsica, where they were immediately taken into custody by the French authorities pending deportation. But the move has failed to have the deterring effect it was meant to, writes the left-leaning daily Die Tageszeitung: "Put under pressure, the authorities improvised and in their haste they disregarded the 124 refugees' most elementary rights. For this violation [French Interior Minister Eric] Besson has now received a well-deserved slap in the face. The case does set an example, but not the one intended by the government's repressive policy. For now the aid organisations have won the day by furnishing evidence that the 'homeland of human rights' may not tread asylum rights underfoot simply because reasons of state demand that the walls of Fortress Europe be built ever thicker and higher as a bulwark against the frightening storm of needy and persecuted who throng from the backyards of the world."

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