PARIS, Feb 19 (AFP)  Prime Minister Lionel Jospin cautioned Monday against granting
 open-door asylum to more than 900 Kurds rescued from a cargo vessel three days ago, saying
 such a move would reward immigrant smugglers worldwide.

 "The first choice we have to make is humanitarian, to humanely accommodate these men,
 women and children who have arrived here in a state of personal distress," Jospin said.

 "Having welcomed them and comforted them, we have to study every individual case to discover
 what it is they want and their reasons for coming to France, even though it is clear they have all
 been exploited by unscrupulous criminals.

 "We have to treat this kind of question at both a French level and in a European context in order
 not to give a sort of reward to those criminal elements involved in the traffic of men and women,"
 Jospin said.

 It was his first public remarks about the fate of the asulym-seekers since they were rescued
 Saturday from a cargo vessel that had run aground near the Riviera city of Cannes.

 The refugees, housed in a disused military base near the southern port of Frejus, present a
 significant test for France's laws on political asylum, with serious consequences for the whole of
 Europe.

 Earlier in the day, the Kurds, who claim to be victims of repression under Saddam Hussein,
 staged a brief protest to demand better conditions and a fast track process to grant them
 asylum in western Europe.

 In Frejus, regional governor Daniel Canepa told AFP that a third of the refugees had been
 interviewed by immigration officers and "all of them want to be allowed in to a western European
 country."

 Canepa said that the refugees had not wanted to come to France in particular, but that they had
 to be dealt with under the asylum laws of the first EU country which they entered.

 Judges could decide on Wednesday to grant them temporary residence until a full asylum
 hearing is scheduled. Canepa said that extra judges had been called in to help out at the
 regional court in Draguignan.

 The Kurds were rescued Saturday after traffickers drove the freighter East Sea on to rocks west
 of the French Riviera city of Cannes. The migrants had spent a week locked up in the hold of the
 decrepit vessel.

 Three babies were born during the perilous journey from Turkey.

 The Kurds were believed to number between 908 and 918, according to various sources
 including Red Cross workers, local police and French immigration authorities.

 France's tough immigration laws, which date back to 1945, are designed to deal with individual
 cases and not a large influx of asylum-seekers.

 "It is a human drama, but going beyond emotion there are rules," Interior Minister Daniel Vaillant
 said on French public television.

 The Kurds must "show that they are political refugees ... Europe, and notably France, is not
 ready to take in all those who want to immigrate," Vaillant said.

 The migrants told reporters that they had been punched and kicked by the masked traffickers,
 fed on bread and biscuits and charged thousands of dollars for the trip, but that it was worth it to
 get to Europe.

 Early Monday the frustrated Kurds held a 45 minute sit down protest to draw attention to their
 plight.

 Cewan Mamo, a translator working inside told AFP the refugees had four demands.

 "Firstly, the way they are housed. It is not comfortable and it is too cold. Secondly, the food. It
 was alright at first, they were very hungry, but they want something more varied, and more hot
 food," he added.

 "Also they want medical treatment for their children. And lastly they want the status of political
 refugees, and they want the process speeded up," Mamo continued.

 But Nicole Long, vice-president of the French Red Cross, defended conditions and said she was
 "astonished" by the protest. "I can understand why they might have the impression of being in
 prison," Long accepted, "but it won't last too long."
_______________
Kurdish illegals upset French Riviera's leisure life

 FREJUS, France, Feb 19 (AFP)  Nothing interrupts the games of bowls on the Place
 Agricole in Frejus, but the sudden arrival of some 900 Kurds has sent a tremor through this
 prosperous and conservative corner of the French Riviera.

 "Enough, is enough!" snorts an elderly, toothless spectator dismissively, drawing a look of
 reproach from his two companions on the bench on the edge of gravel playing track, one of
 whom cuts in to explain his friend's views.

 "You know most of the people around here have parents from elsewhere, many from Italy. We
 fought in the war and we've been in difficult situations. People have been coming here for years
 and we welcomed them," he said.

 "But they were coming in as individuals and families. We needed labour for the workforce. When
 so many arrive at once what are we to do? It's a difficult situation," he said.

 A player in a flat cap cracks into a grin. "There'll be more. You'll see. When people are hungry
 what do they do? What would you do? They move, they find something," he said.

 The south of France has long been a popular destination for migrants, both Arabs from the
 country's former north African colonies looking for work and retired film-stars looking for a
 south-facing villa and space to moor a yacht.

 But the unexpected arrival of the freighter East Sea on a bank of rocks off Bouloris, a quiet but
 well-to-do resort town surrounded by pastel pink holiday homes and palm trees, was a talking
 point.

 "It was a big event for Bouloris. We all went down to the beach with our camcorders. People
 were talking of nothing else," said an embarrassed hotel receptionist.

 The footage shot by the television professionals, who arrived on the beach soon after the
 bemused locals, showed hundreds of frightened, starving and obviously foreign people crowded
 on a boat.

 It called to mind a dozen recent refugee crises -- Health Minister Bernard Kouchner talked off
 the Vietnamese boat people -- but it was shot on the French Riviera, and it turned the intractable
 struggles of the Middle East into front-page local news.

 The French authorities mobilised an impressive operation to rescue and house the refugees, an
 easier task perhaps than deciding what to do with them, and by Monday they were lodged in a
 military depot outside the old Roman port of Frejus.

 Outside the holiday season the refugees quickly became a top attraction and steady stream of
 locals joined the journalists and human rights monitors jostling outside the holding camp.

 Many brought childrens' clothes, toys, blankets, and tried to donate them to the Red Cross
 workers overseeing the humanitarian side of the operation. They were turned back, often to their
 disgust, and told to take them to sorting centres in town.

 Others expressed their disgust. "The dustbin of Europe!" cried one woman as she drove past.
 "You'll see, they'll profit nicely out of this. Another load of black market workers," a man, not at
 work himself and apparently drunk, declared.

 "Personally I don't think we should take them in. We should help them, obviously, especially the
 children, if they have nothing. But I don't think they should be just allowed to apply for asylum
 and leave the camp. What would they do?" 24-year-old Thierry Joos, a barman from Frejus said.

 "When I think of all the paperwork I had to do to marry my wife and get her accepted in France,
 and then these people turn up and we just let them in, it's just not right," said his pal Gerald
 Boez.

 "I suppose we can't know what the journey was like, but they don't look too thin, they're well fed.
 France is far too much of a nanny state. We can't look after them." the 25-year-old chef added.
********************
The Kurdistan Observer
www.kurdistanobserver.com