President Francois Hollande said yesterday that a 15-year-old schoolgirl whose expulsion from France has sparked uproar could return to pursue her studies but without her family, a compromise following criticism from left-wing allies.
The outcry began after Leonarda Dibrani, whose family entered the country illegally in 2009, was ordered off a school bus by police in front of her classmates before being sent this month to Kosovo, her father's native country.
Thousands of students marched through the streets of Paris and surrounding cities on Friday demanding that she be allowed to return to France, and Socialist lawmakers warned the party was at risk of "losing its soul" with tough deportation tactics.
Hundreds of students gathered yesterday in northern Paris to call for interior minister Manuel Valls to resign.
Hollande's gesture toward Dibrani, who said from Kosovo yesterday she would not return without her family, appeared to be designed to show clemency without undermining his interior minister or offering fodder to a burgeoning far-right movement.
Frustration over illegal migration and Roma camps on the outskirts of French cities has bolstered support for the far-right National Front party ahead of municipal and European elections next year, putting Hollande in a delicate position.
The Socialist leader defended the deportation as legally sound because the Dibranis had exhausted all recourse for political asylum in France but said the decision was based on the need to take her "human situation" into account.
"She will be welcomed back, and her alone," Hollande said in a recorded message from his office.
Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault had told parliament on Wednesday that Dibrani, who is of Roma descent, would be readmitted to France if it was found that police had broken the rules by arresting her on school property.
Hollande, citing a 24-page investigation into the school bus incident from the Interior Ministry, said police had broken no rules during Dibrani's removal but that guidelines limiting police action on school property needed to be reinforced.
Dibrani, speaking from the Kosovo city of Mitrovica, said that she did not want to return to France without her family.
"I've refused because I want to go with family, not by myself - I can't fend for myself," she told reporters.
A source close to talks about the girl said social services would take care of her if she returned to France. Denying a return to Dibrani's family showed Hollande's support for Valls, the most popular member of his government who came under fire from Socialist lawmakers accusing him of betraying the left's values.
Previously, Dibrani's father, Reshat, who has admitted lying on his applications for asylum, said the family had packed its bags and would return to France even if the journey took days. A survey by pollster BVA showed that more than two out of three Frenchmen opposed Dibrani's return to France, while a majority found nothing shocking about the method of her removal.
But with support largely limited to students and left-wing members of parliament, the demonstrations looked likely to peter out, with schools breaking up for a holiday.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article