DFA: No Filipino wants to be repatriated amid France unrest By GISELLE OMBAY, GMA Integrated News

No Filipino in France has expressed inclination to be repatriated despite the days-long riots in the country after a police officer shot dead a 17-year-old in a Paris suburb, an official of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Tuesday. Interviewed on Super Radyo dzBB, DFA Undersecretary Eduardo de Vega said he spoke to Philippine Ambassador to France Junever Mahilum-West who told him that Filipinos in France are keeping away from the violent protests. “Sabi niya kahapon, safe naman ‘yung conditions sa Paris at sa ibang lugar," DE Vega said, adding that rallies happen in banlieues, suburbs where there are alleged human rights violations and discriminations. “Ang mga Pilipino marurunong naman umiwas sa mga away,” he added. (She said yesterday that the conditions are safe in Paris and other areas. The rallies happen in the banlieues ... because there is human rights violation or discrimination [there]. Filipinos know how to avoid these fights.) De Vega said there are 26,000 Filipinos legally in France, and there might be twice this number if the undocumented Filipinos are counted in. There are also no Filipinos based in the said banlieues, he added. “Maayos naman at sumusunod sila sa payo ng mayor at ng ating embassy,” De Vega said. (They are fine and they follow the advice of the mayor and our embassy.) “Walang nagpaparinig na gusto magpa-repatriate,” he added. (No one wants to be repatriated.) The shooting of Nahel, a teenager of North African descent, happened in Nanterre, on the western outskirts of Paris. The local prosecutor said the officer who shot him during a traffic stop had been put under formal investigation for voluntary homicide. Under France's legal system, being placed under formal investigation is akin to being charged in Anglo-Saxon jurisdictions. The unrest has revived memories of riots in 2005 that convulsed France for three weeks and forced then-president Jacques Chirac to declare a state of emergency. That wave of violence erupted in the Paris suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois and spread across the country following the death of two young people electrocuted in a power substation as they hid from police. Two officers were acquitted in a trial ten years later. — with Reuters/RSJ, GMA Integrated News

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