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Only real asylum seekers welcome in France: Sarkozy

President Nicolas Sarkozy says the Kurdish migrants who have just been released will be expelled from France if they are not genuine asylum seekers.
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France probes migrants' mass-landing in Corsica

Paris – President Nicolas Sarkozy warned on Monday that more than 100 Kurdish migrants detained in France will be expelled if they are not genuine asylum seekers.

The migrants had faced possible deportation when they were detained after fetching up on a beach in Corsica in a rare mass landing on French soil, but judges ordered they be released so they could apply for asylum.

"Those who are political refugees will be welcomed," Sarkozy in a televised interview on Monday evening. "Those who are not will be sent home."

The 123 adults and children, most of whom say they are ethnic Kurds from Syria, were found on a beach on the Mediterranean island after being landed by traffickers, who have not been caught.

They told French authorities they were brought by truck from Syria to Tunisia for up to EUR 10,000 each, and put on a cargo vessel which dropped them near southern Corsica on Friday.

The migrants were transferred to processing centres on the French mainland but judges in southern Marseille, Nimes and northwestern Rennes ordered 94 to be freed on Sunday, ruling that the state had no legal grounds to detain them.

In eastern Lyon a judge freed a further 10 on Monday and 19 others were also released in the southern city of Toulouse.

Migrants told the court in Lyon they fled Syria because, as Kurds, their rights were abused there and that they planned to file for asylum.

"In Syria I was not considered human," 35-year-old Jumsid Ali told the court. "I risked my life to come to France and I am sure that if I return to Syria, I will risk death."

At least 61 of the 81 adults in the group have already filed for asylum, the immigration ministry said, and the others were expected to follow suit.

The interior ministry told AFP that as soon as the migrants filed for asylum applications, any local procedure to deport them was overruled. The asylum process can take months.