#1 Paris to pay immigrants to return
Posted: Thu May 24, 2007 7:10 pm
BBC
Somehow I don't think this is something France can buy itself out of.France has said it plans to offer incentives to more immigrants - especially those from Africa - to return home voluntarily.
New Immigration Minister Brice Hortefeux said a family with two children would be paid 6,000 euros (£4,068) to return to their country.
In 2005-2006, a similar scheme was taken up by some 3,000 families.
France is home to about two million immigrants from north and sub-Saharan Africa, according to a 2004 census.
"We must increase this measure to help voluntarily return. I am very clearly committed to doing that," Mr Hortefeux told France's RFI radio.
Mr Hortefeux last week was named immigration minister by newly-elected President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Mr Sarkozy has warned that France "is exasperated by uncontrolled immigration".
France was hit by a series of riots in the immigrant-heavy suburbs in 2005.