Hundreds of ‘Black Vest’ migrant protesters occupied Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris on Sunday demanding to speak to Prime Minister Édouard Philippe in a demonstration against deportations and in favor of legal papers for all.
The group, estimated to be about 500 people, gathered in Terminal 2 of the airport as riot police officers stood at the foot of the escalators and monitored their activity.
“France does not belong to the French! Everyone has a right to be here!” one of the demonstrators shouted into a loudspeaker.
The protest was organized by the migrant support group La Chapelle Debout. It said its members were calling themselves the ‘Black Vests’ after the Yellow Vest protest movement which has been demonstrating in France for months.
The protesters called for ‘papers for all,’ a meeting with Philippe to discuss asylum policy, and a meeting with the leaders of Air France to demand they stop “any financial, material, logistical or political participation in deportations.”
An Air France delegation later met with the group and said it would “report the grievances to the management,” Le Parisien reports.
Airport operator Aeroports de Paris said no flights were affected by the protest.
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