December 17, 2002	Tuesday	Shawwal 12, 1423

PARIS, Dec 16: Hundreds of protesters on Monday gathered at Sangatte to demand that France “better respect the rights of refugees” and “find a humanitarian solution to the plight of DPs.”

Organizers of the demonstration — among them Les Verts, the French ecological movement, and a major pro-DP organization GISTI, the Groupe d’information et de soutien des immigres — said that taking part in the demonstration were 50 Iraqi DPs who felt they should have had as much of a right to be sent to Britain as the estimated 1100 other former inmates of the Sangatte center, most of whom have already made their way across the Channel.

According to a spokesman for GISTI, “we demand that there be a humanitarian solution to the plight of refugees who continue to arrive at Calais, that they be given at least a place to sleep, and have access to sanitary and health services.”