The Militant - November 4, 2013 -- Students rally in France against deporting classmates

Vol. 77/No. 39 November 4, 2013

Students rally in France against deporting classmates

Reuters/Benoit Tessier

Thousands of high school students demonstrated in Paris Oct. 17 to protest the government’s deportation of two students —Leonarda Dibrani, 15, to Kosova and Khatchik Kachatryan, 19, to Armenia. Leonarda was removed by police from a school bus Oct. 9 while on a class field trip and deported along with her family that day. Her family is Roma, an oppressed nationality disparagingly referred to as “gypsies,” and had been living in France for nearly five years. Sign in photo above says, “Khatchik must come back.”

The following day thousands demonstrated in Paris and other cities across France. They demanded the students’ return and resignation of Interior Minister Manuel Valls, who backed the expulsions. Valls is a member of the Socialist Party government of President François Hollande. The French president, a strong proponent of deporting the Roma, said Oct. 19 that Leonarda could return to France, but without her family.

— BRIAN WILLIAMS