French Riot Police Drag Away Women And Babies
UK, Monday August 02, 2010
The video posted on the web shows officers armed with batons scuffling with African immigrant squatters from an encampment in the suburbs of Paris.
One of the women is visibly pregnant.
No-one was injured in the July 21 operation in La Courneuve, a suburb northeast of Paris, local officials said.
But human rights campaigners denounced the "brutal evacuation" of some 200 people.
The evacuation was handled "according to legal procedures and rules", the government of the Seine-Saint-Denis region around La Corneuve said.
French politicians and the media have attacked a host of new government proposals targeting immigrants suspected of crimes.
The interior minister defended the measures, calling them part of France's "war against insecurity".
French riot police have been captured on video dragging immigrant women along the ground with babies on their backs during an eviction.
One of the women is visibly pregnant.
A mother clings desperately to her terrified baby during the eviction
The footage, shot by a member of a housing-rights organisation, shows police dragging a woman across the ground with her infant trailing behind in the dirt.No-one was injured in the July 21 operation in La Courneuve, a suburb northeast of Paris, local officials said.
But human rights campaigners denounced the "brutal evacuation" of some 200 people.
A baby - strapped to its mother's back - is dragged along the dirt
MRAP, a leading human rights group, said people in the video had all been expelled from previous housing and provided with no long-term solutions.The evacuation was handled "according to legal procedures and rules", the government of the Seine-Saint-Denis region around La Corneuve said.
French politicians and the media have attacked a host of new government proposals targeting immigrants suspected of crimes.
A pregnant woman is dragged along the ground by riot police
They have accused President Nicolas Sarkozy of pandering to the far-right in a bid to boost his popularity.The interior minister defended the measures, calling them part of France's "war against insecurity".
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