Leonarda Dibrani, the 15 year-old Roma schoolgirl whose deportation from France sparked a huge outcry, was invited to return to France without her family. Armend Nimani / AFP
Leonarda Dibrani, the 15 year-old Roma schoolgirl whose deportation from France sparked a huge outcry, was invited to return to France without her family. Armend Nimani / AFP
Leonarda Dibrani, the 15 year-old Roma schoolgirl whose deportation from France sparked a huge outcry, was invited to return to France without her family. Armend Nimani / AFP
Leonarda Dibrani, the 15 year-old Roma schoolgirl whose deportation from France sparked a huge outcry, was invited to return to France without her family. Armend Nimani / AFP

Kosovar teenager Leonarda Dibrani’s treatment in France compared to roundup of Jews under Nazi occupation


Colin Randall
  • English
  • Arabic

Calais // The last stop in northern France before the short crossing to England, above or beneath water, has a troubled recent history of coping with the seemingly unstoppable flow of illegal immigrants.

Afghans, Somalis, Iraqis and growing numbers of Syrians have taken to abandoned buildings, a woodland encampment and other makeshift shelter while trying to reach Britain and gain asylum.

France, in common with other European countries, is struggling to find a coherent answer to the problem of people from conflict-stricken or impoverished lands moving from one continent to another in search of safer or better lives.

This month’s appalling loss of life of Somali, Eritrean and Syrian immigrants, their overcrowded boats sinking in the Mediterranean, bears witness to the desperate lengths to which many go to join the exodus. The United Nations Human Rights Commission has estimated that more than 30,000 migrants have completed the crossings to Malta and Italy this year.

But it is the case of a 15-year-old Kosovar girl, who wants to make her life in France, which has dominated French airwaves and newspapers in the past week, providing a new focus for discussions about illegal immigration.

And after Leonarda Dibrani was taken by border police from a school trip before the eyes of a shocked teacher and classmates, and then expelled with her mother and five siblings, the French president François Hollande’s answer to the resulting furore has turned scandal into bleak farce. To the dismay and even disbelief of many, he publicly invited her to return to France to continue her education but without her family.

Sections of the French media have suggested that he reduced an already embarrassing episode to fiasco. The anti-Hollande conservative daily Le Figaro made grim allusion to the tragedies at sea, describing his intervention as a “shipwreck”.

Leonarda, now in the Kosovo city of Mitrovica, told Reuters she would not return alone and accused Mr Hollande of “having no heart”.

The French left, including some ministers from Mr Hollande’s ruling socialist government, have condemned Leonarda’s expulsion. Even the administration’s Moroccan-born official spokeswoman, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, acknowledged the circumstances were “shocking”.

The education minister, Vincent Peillon, said educational institutions should be inviolable, pupils blockaded schools – also citing the recent case of an Armenian boy’s expulsion – and some left-wing and green politicians referred to Leonarda as the victim of a “rafle”, an emotive term recalling the roundups of Jews under Nazi occupation.

Leonarda was removed from a school bus on October 9 as she was about to go on a class outing the day after her father had been detained elsewhere in France and deported. Police realised she was missing when they arrived at the reception centre where the family was living in Levier, eastern France.

The teacher accompanying the children was contacted and ordered to stop the bus, which she did with reluctance. A local socialist politician suggested in vain that he should take her back to rejoin her family. The left-of-centre Libération newspaper quoted the teacher as saying she badgered officers into parking away from the vehicle to avoid the tearful Leonarda being seen getting into their vehicle “humiliated in front of her friends”. Several commentators have noted the excellent French spoken by Leonarda and her apparently successful immersion in school life, at odds with the stereotype of immigrants failing to integrate.

However, with the far right, anti-immigration Front National (FN) posing an increasing threat to the mainstream “republican” parties, Mr Hollande is anxious not to antagonise an electorate disillusioned with his presidency and hostile to the influx of foreigners.

His hardline interior minister Manuel Valls, though himself born in Spain, has adopted a heavy-handed immigration policy, suggesting that most Roma, moving from one encampment to another in France, lived lives “extremely different from and clearly in conflict with” those of the French and should return to Romania or Bulgaria.

Mr Valls claims no error was committed by the authorities in Leonarda’s case. He told the Sunday newspaper, Le Journal du Dimanche, the family’s request for asylum had been rejected at all seven stages of its process since their arrival in France in 2009.

While presenting himself as conscious of the “situation of this young girl”, he said emotion was not the only factor to influence policy. He made limited admission that police showed a “lack of discretion” but otherwise insisted that the law had had been correctly applied, adding: “The president’s gesture is an act of generosity towards Leonarda, but her family are not coming back.”

Few doubt that illegal immigration is a headache for countries to which frightened or suffering people wish to migrate.

But the Leonarda affair has left many moderate observers of French politics wondering what, if this is how a socialist government could act, might be expected from an administration in which the buoyant FN had a say.

They already have an answer of sorts.

When the FN leader, Marine Le Pen, deplored Mr Hollande’s offer to the girl as “grotesque and dangerous”, she was not siding with Leonarda. She was complaining that this was a signal, “showing weakness and encouragement to clandestine immigration”, that would be heard and understood the world over.

foreign.desk@thenational.ae

Profile Idealz

Company: Idealz

Founded: January 2018

Based: Dubai

Sector: E-commerce

Size: (employees): 22

Investors: Co-founders and Venture Partners (9 per cent)

Low turnout
Two months before the first round on April 10, the appetite of voters for the election is low.

Mathieu Gallard, account manager with Ipsos, which conducted the most recent poll, said current forecasts suggested only two-thirds were "very likely" to vote in the first round, compared with a 78 per cent turnout in the 2017 presidential elections.

"It depends on how interesting the campaign is on their main concerns," he told The National. "Just now, it's hard to say who, between Macron and the candidates of the right, would be most affected by a low turnout."

COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
 
Started: 2021
 
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
 
Based: Tunisia 
 
Sector: Water technology 
 
Number of staff: 22 
 
Investment raised: $4 million 
Timeline

2012-2015

The company offers payments/bribes to win key contracts in the Middle East

May 2017

The UK SFO officially opens investigation into Petrofac’s use of agents, corruption, and potential bribery to secure contracts

September 2021

Petrofac pleads guilty to seven counts of failing to prevent bribery under the UK Bribery Act

October 2021

Court fines Petrofac £77 million for bribery. Former executive receives a two-year suspended sentence 

December 2024

Petrofac enters into comprehensive restructuring to strengthen the financial position of the group

May 2025

The High Court of England and Wales approves the company’s restructuring plan

July 2025

The Court of Appeal issues a judgment challenging parts of the restructuring plan

August 2025

Petrofac issues a business update to execute the restructuring and confirms it will appeal the Court of Appeal decision

October 2025

Petrofac loses a major TenneT offshore wind contract worth €13 billion. Holding company files for administration in the UK. Petrofac delisted from the London Stock Exchange

November 2025

180 Petrofac employees laid off in the UAE

White hydrogen: Naturally occurring hydrogenChromite: Hard, metallic mineral containing iron oxide and chromium oxideUltramafic rocks: Dark-coloured rocks rich in magnesium or iron with very low silica contentOphiolite: A section of the earth’s crust, which is oceanic in nature that has since been uplifted and exposed on landOlivine: A commonly occurring magnesium iron silicate mineral that derives its name for its olive-green yellow-green colour

TOURNAMENT INFO

Women’s World Twenty20 Qualifier

Jul 3- 14, in the Netherlands
The top two teams will qualify to play at the World T20 in the West Indies in November

UAE squad
Humaira Tasneem (captain), Chamani Seneviratne, Subha Srinivasan, Neha Sharma, Kavisha Kumari, Judit Cleetus, Chaya Mughal, Roopa Nagraj, Heena Hotchandani, Namita D’Souza, Ishani Senevirathne, Esha Oza, Nisha Ali, Udeni Kuruppuarachchi

INVESTMENT PLEDGES

Cartlow: $13.4m

Rabbitmart: $14m

Smileneo: $5.8m

Soum: $4m

imVentures: $100m

Plug and Play: $25m

SPECS
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EEngine%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202-litre%204-cylinder%20turbo%20and%203.6-litre%20V6%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETransmission%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESeven-speed%20automatic%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPower%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20235hp%20and%20310hp%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETorque%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E258Nm%20and%20271Nm%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPrice%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20From%20Dh185%2C100%0D%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Tips for taking the metro

- set out well ahead of time

- make sure you have at least Dh15 on you Nol card, as there could be big queues for top-up machines

- enter the right cabin. The train may be too busy to move between carriages once you're on

- don't carry too much luggage and tuck it under a seat to make room for fellow passengers

In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe

Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010

Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille

Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm

Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year

Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”

Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners

TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013 

The%20specs
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EEngine%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E2.3-litre%204cyl%20turbo%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPower%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E299hp%20at%205%2C500rpm%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETorque%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E420Nm%20at%202%2C750rpm%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETransmission%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E10-speed%20auto%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFuel%20consumption%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E12.4L%2F100km%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EOn%20sale%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ENow%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPrice%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFrom%20Dh157%2C395%20(XLS)%3B%20Dh199%2C395%20(Limited)%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
If you go

The flights

The closest international airport for those travelling from the UAE is Denver, Colorado. British Airways (www.ba.com) flies from the UAE via London from Dh3,700 return, including taxes. From there, transfers can be arranged to the ranch or it’s a seven-hour drive. Alternatively, take an internal flight to the counties of Cody, Casper, or Billings

The stay

Red Reflet offers a series of packages, with prices varying depending on season. All meals and activities are included, with prices starting from US$2,218 (Dh7,150) per person for a minimum stay of three nights, including taxes. For more information, visit red-reflet-ranch.net.

 

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