PARIS, Jan 7: A group of several dozen paperless demonstrators or illegal immigrants — made up of Kurds, Chinese and Malians — were forcefully removed on Monday night from a Paris church where they had gathered to protest a delay in issuance of documents.

Police said that the order for the removal of the immigrants came from the church authorities, who said they had not been consulted before the occupation.

Last Tuesday the 150 protesters were told that they would be received this week at the offices of the interior ministry in order to discuss their demand for regularization of all of the country’s illegal immigrants.

But, when their representatives appeared on Monday at Mr Sarkozy’s offices, they learnt that the minister’s promise notwithstanding, their demands were unlikely to be accepted.