Gendarmes' removal of girl from school to deport her revives debate over treatment of migrants
Last month gendarmes in north-east France arrived at a school during morning break in order to escort a 14-year-old pupil off the premises and deport her and her family to Belgium. Since then, both the local state prefecture and the gendarmes have been forced to admit that in doing so they committed “errors”. And despite the toxic political climate in France, the immediate reaction from teachers, parents and some local politicians to the “scandalous” incident has managed to transform the debate on how migrants - and especially migrant children - are treated in the country. Mathilde Goanec reports.
TheThe removal of a teenage girl from her school by gendarmes so that she could be deported to Belgium along with her family has caused controversy in France. The story began on January 22nd, when Nado, aged 14, suddenly disappeared from public view after officers came to fetch her from the Paul-Verlaine middle school at Maizières-lès-Metz in north-east France. The young girl, who was on her mid-morning break, was taken to the school office and informed that her mother and younger brother were waiting for her in a gendarme van outside the school.
