Eric Besson, the French Minister of Immigration, likes to misrepresent reality, as was evident in the shameless lies told about the “offence of solidarity” (1).

According to the minister, the three Afghans sent home to Afghanistan on a charter flight during the night of Tuesday 20th October, would not be in any danger because they “come from towns situated close to Kabul”. The Afghan government formally denied this; these immigrants are not from the capital but “are from provinces faced with war, the Taliban and terrorism”, claims the General Mohammad Omar Ayar, Afghan Vice President for Refugees and Repatriation.

Eric Besson wanted to pass off this forced return as a leisure trip, with nights in a hotel in the Afghan capital “paid for by France for two weeks”. In reality, this ‘escorted trip’ was hurried to say the least, the Internal Security Attaché stayed with the deportees for twenty minutes before driving them to the hotel, from where they would continue their journey in the morning. One of the three men, Faysal, gave a damning account of events to reporters from the French news magazine L’Express. This young man, 22 years old, claimed that he was “hit” by French police who “wanted to force him to sign a paper stating his promise to return to Afghanistan”.

The following Friday, the French Prime Minister, François Fillon stated that France “needed no lesson in morality…since if there is a country and a government that would not abandon the Afghan people then that country is France.

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