In the French city of Rennes, a group of refugees from Syria, Afghanistan and Bangladesh are training to work in restaurants. Most of them have never even held a kitchen knife before they started this program, but they are full of motivation about the opportunity.
A total of 213 migrants were rescued in the Channel on Sunday and Monday as they tried to cross from France to Britain in small boats, French officials said. The operation reportedly involved at least one helicopter and four vessels of the French navy and the National Society for Rescue at Sea (SNSM).
Three refugee rights activists have begun a hunger strike to draw attention to harsh living conditions suffered by foreign nationals trying to get to the UK from France's Calais region.
Britain's proposed new laws to deal with migration have been criticized by a group of lawyers, commissioned by the NGO Freedom from Torture. The bill has already passed its second reading in parliament.
Three migrants were killed and one injured after a train in southern France struck them. The migrants were reportedly lying or sleeping on or near the tracks at the time of the incident.
Over 1,100 migrants crossed the English Channel on small boats on Friday and Saturday, the British Home Office has said. Some 410 people were prevented by French authorities from making the crossing.
An Afghan girl evacuated from Kabul over the summer managed to hold on to her treasured pet, a Mynah bird. But for health reasons the bird was not allowed to fly all the way to France with the girl. That’s when the French ambassador to the UAE promised to take care of the bird for her.
In northern France, migrants seeking to cross the Channel to England face a 'daily harassment and humiliation', according to a report published by Human Rights Watch.
French police are inflicting misery on migrants in the northern port of Calais, routinely tearing down their tents and forcing them to wander the streets as part of a deterrence policy, Human Rights Watch said in a report Thursday.
Newspapers are reporting that a group of eight Iranian Kurdish migrants were fired at by French police as they attempted to launch a boat on the French coast near Dunkirk. The migrants, who were hoping to make it to the UK, were hit by rubber bullets. At least two were injured.
The French association Droit à l'école (Right to School) provides daily classes to foreign unaccompanied minors who have had their minority status rejected and are awaiting their appeal with the children's judge. The 'school for those without a school' provides respite for these young migrants and a chance to integrate them in the national education program.
After spending most of his adult life on the migrant trail, Alex, originally from Iran, tried to cross the English Channel from France twice. He talked to a French filmmaker and the film was posted just as the latest row broke out between Britain and France about how to stop people like him from attempting the crossing at all.