Thousands of schoolchildren in Paris and other parts of France have been demonstrating in anger over the expulsion of two foreign teenagers.
Some demanded the sacking of Interior Minister Manuel Valls.
In one case, a Roma schoolgirl was sent to Kosovo and in the other, a student was repatriated to Armenia.
There has been widespread indignation at the manner in which border police picked up schoolgirl LeonardaDibrani, whose family had lost its bid for asylum in France after five years in the country.
Leonarda, 15, was escorted from her school bus by a teacher, in front of other children, in the eastern region of Doubs on 9 October.
Meanwhile, it has been suggested that only the father of the Dibrani girl is actually from Kosovo and that he lied about his family's origin in his bid to win asylum in France.
'Arrested for theft'
Schoolchildren left class to show solidarity both with Leonarda and KhatchikKachatryan, a 19-year-old student in Paris who was expelled on Saturday to Armenia.
MrKachatryan was arrested for shoplifting in September, at which point police discovered he had entered France illegally, the French daily Le Figaro reports.
Reports suggest that he was detained on his return to the former Soviet republic for seeking to escape doing military service.
"Bring back Khatchik and Leonarda, they belong here," marching pupils chanted on Thursday, holding up signs calling for MrValls to resign.
The president of France's National High School Students' Union, Ivan Dementhon, said students were angry at the way the Dibrani family had been treated.
"The expulsion of the young Leonarda is particularly shocking because it was done in a school environment," he said.
"It's not tolerable that students with or without documents are expelled. Everybody should have a right to education, and that is why all high
Body of Nazi Erich Priebke moved to Italian airport
The coffin of Nazi war criminal Erich Priebke has been taken to a military airport near Rome after a funeral was halted following angry protests.
Italian officials said contacts had been made with Germany, amid media reports that Priebke's body could be flown there.
Priebke died under house arrest last week. He had been jailed for life over the killing of more than 300 civilians.
Italian media say his body could be kept at the airport for the time being.
A funeral in Albano Laziale, south of Rome, was called off on Tuesday amid scuffles between protesters and Nazi sympathisers.
Priebke's refusal to show any remorse for his wartime actions - and only recently called the Holocaust an invention - has inflamed emotions over what to do with him in death.
Rome's mayor said it would be an "insult" to bury him in the Italian capital; Argentina has rejected Priebke's own request to be buried alongside his wife; and Hennigsdorf officials have said they "have no interest in burying a war criminal here".
The row coincided with commemorations held for the 70th anniversary of the roundup of Jews in the Rome ghetto and their deportation to Auschwitz during World War II.
'Neo-Nazi risk'
Priebke died on Friday, aged 100.
He was one of the SS officers overseeing the killing of men and boys at Rome's Ardeatine Caves in 1944, one of the worst massacres in Italy during World War II.
In a reprisal for the killing of 33 German soldiers in Rome by resistance fighters, 335 Italian civilians were shot dead. It is believed that Adolf Hitler ordered 10 Italians killed for every German.
Though Priebke admitted his role in the massacre, he never expressed any remorse and maintained he was following orders.
He was extradited in 1994 after investigative journalists from US television network ABC News tracked him down in Argentina.
In 1998, he was sentenced to life in prison. However, he pleaded that he was too old and sick for jail, and was soon allowed to switch to a regime of house arrest.
SPIDERGRAMS
ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTION
- Who was Priebke? What did he do during World War II?
- What happened after the end of the war?
- Why did he come back tom Italy?
- Was he sentenced? Did he go to prison? Why?
- What happened on Friday? What happened to the coffin? Why?
- What did Argentina and Germany do?
- What about the Vatican?
- What happened in Albano Laziale?
- Was the funeral held?
- How did it all end?
- What do you think about this fact?
- Were you shocked/ surprised/ indifferent at what happened in Albano Laziale?
- Do you agree with the demonstrators?
- What do you think about people who deny the Holocaust?
Journalists who visited the Dibrani family in Kosovo on Wednesday found them living in a house in the northern town of Mitrovica, despite earlier suggestions that they were homeless.
It has also emerged that the father, Resat, was investigated by French authorities for allegedly beating his family.
Leonarda and all the other members were born in Italy, he told the agency. "Then we came to France. We lied to the authorities when we said we were from Kosovo."
The family has been lodged in Mitrovica with a monthly grant of 150 euros (£127; $203) from the Kosovan government, an official told Reuters, speaking anonymously. The official added that the authorities were unsure what to do about them because only the father was from Kosovo.
MrValls insists that the deportation of Leonarda and the rest of her family was carried out in line with established procedure.
"Any immigration policy requires respect for the law, respect for individuals and great firmness," he said this week.
Questions
- What do you think about this situation: do you support the students’ demonstration or not? Why?
- Is solidarity among students right? Why?
- What is wrong in these two situations, according to you?
As the coffin was taken to the Society's seminary in Albano Laziale on Wednesday, protesters shouted "murderer" and "executioner" and clashed with Nazi sympathisers as his coffin passed.
"We had to cancel the funeral yesterday because there was a risk that it could have become a neo-Nazi demonstration," said MrPecoraro.
SYNONYMS
- Halted
- Jailed
- Called off
- Scuffles
- Inflamed
- row
b. short violent fights
c. small group of people that has separated from a larger one
d. stopped
e. give an explanation or excuse for sthing
f. cause very strong feelings /
- roundup
- reprisal
- pleaded
- splinter group
h.cancelled
i. put in prison
l. serious disagreement between people/ organizations