Hundreds of refugees evicted from homes on French island

Local anti-refugee groups have forced hundreds of foreigners, including dozens of families with proof of legal residency, to leave their homes on France’s Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte.

Local authorities said angry anti-foreigner groups went door to door in nine villages and forced the families to leave their homes on Sunday.

They evicted almost 700 people from their homes in the central village of Ouangani alone.

They made some of the families to immediately leave their house, while gave others ultimatums to leave within the coming days.

The families, most from the neighboring Comoros islands, were forced to head to the capital to join hundreds of other families, who had already camped out on the main square after being made homeless.

The locals have been engaged in such expulsions for months. They accuse the refugees of “clandestine immigration” and “daily thefts, assaults and murders,” on the island.

Elsewhere in Europe, an anti-refugee party prompted anger among people by making racist comments against a black player with Germany

Alexander Gauland, the vice-chairman of German nationalist party, sparked outrage among people across the country after reportedly saying Jerome Boateng, a black player on the national team and for the Bayern Munich, should not be Germans’ “neighbor.”

“People find him good as a football player but they don’t want a Boateng as their neighbor,” Gauland, told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper on Sunday.

Boateng, who was born in Berlin to a Ghanaian father and German mother, told German TV channel ARD in reaction that “I can only smile about [the remarks].”

Germany has recently seen the rise of far-right groups opposing the entry of refugees.

The country had opened its borders to the many refugees, who were fleeing conflict zones last summer with a welcoming mood, but gradually shifted away from the policy as public hostility rose.

The entire Europe is facing an unprecedented influx of refugees, most of whom are fleeing conflict zones in Africa and the Middle East, particularly Syria.

To tackle the crisis, the EU signed an agreement with Turkey in March. Under the deal, Turkey has committed to taking back all the asylum seekers and refugees, who had used the Aegean Sea to illegally reach Greece. 

Ankara threatened the EU on Monday to abandon the deal if its citizens are not granted visa-free travel to the continent.

“We have told them ‘we are not threatening you’ but there’s a reality,” said Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu. “We have signed two deals with you (the EU) and both are interlinked.”

“This is not a threat but what is required from an agreement,” he said.

Brussels insists Turkey must meet 72 criteria, notably to overhaul its anti-terror law, if it wants a visa-free travel for its citizens to Europe’s borderless Schengen zone.

Turkey, however, refuses to bow to the demands, saying without visa liberalization, there will be no deal and that the bloc must find a “new formula” to save the agreement.

Rights groups have voiced concern about the deal, with the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights saying the agreement could lead to the “collective expulsions” of people fleeing war in violation of international law.

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