Illegal Immigrants in France May Receive Amnesty

French daily newspaper Le Monde published in its Friday edition an interview with Paris police chief Yannick Blanc, who stated that France may be on the verge of granting amnesty to thousands of immigrant families, whose children were registered in French schools: "We know that we are going to grant residency papers to several thousand families".

According to Blanc, 2,300 such families were given appointments to prepare their legalization papers, and more are still to come, yet he warned that not all illegal immigrants would actually fit the criteria imposed.

This political decision is not new at all, since Nicolas Sarkozy, the French Interior Minister announced in the senate that around 750 families of illegal immigrants have actually received legalization papers.

This decision comes amid intense disputes over the illegal immigrants' status in France, placing the French government, which initially wanted to strike a decision to expel thousands of illegal immigrant families who had their children in French schools, on one side, and left-wing politicians, media outlets and various VIPs from the world of sports, supporting the other tens of thousands of people who signed a petition calling for the protection of immigrants from the political "manhunt" unleashed by the cabinet. Protests were organized by The Education Without Borders Network, which reported that between 50,000 and 100,000 children of the illegal immigrants are studying within the French educational system.

The criteria for an illegal immigrant family to receive legalization in France include bringing evidence that one of their children was born in France or arrived there before the age of 13, has been registered in the French educational system for at least two years and has no link whatsoever with the country his parents come from.