Police clear 1,000 people from France's biggest squat

PARIS - Police cleared hundreds of people from France's biggest squat, a former student hall of residence near Paris, the Interior Ministry said today.

The Communist Party, which said 1,000 people were occupying the building, denounced the move as part of what it called French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy's "determination" to arrest immigrants on a large scale.

"This expulsion on a large scale marks a further step in the violence and irresponsibility," it said in a statement.

The squatters in the town of Cachan had held demonstrations demanding they be rehoused and that the illegal immigrants among them be granted residency permits.

Of 508 people evicted from the building, 49 adults had been arrested with a view to being sent back to their country of origin, the Interior Ministry said.

"The building is now empty ... Its demolition will begin in the coming days," the ministry said.

The prefecture of the Val de Marne department said the building, which has 300 bedrooms and had been occupied since 2001, had to be cleared because improvised electrical wiring posed a fire hazard.

The Communist Party had said half the squatters were illegal immigrants and 200 of them children. The prefecture said a court had ruled in April 2004 that the squatters should leave.

Sarkozy has tightened immigration rules and decided to expel thousands of illegal immigrants this year.

The prefecture said 350 hotel rooms had been set aside to house 800 of the building's occupants. The Interior Ministry said 190 people had agreed to be put up in the hotel rooms.

Squatters with French papers would "be examined attentively to allow, insofar as possible, their relocation in social housing", the prefecture said.

- REUTERS