Sarkozy calls for immigrant quotas

FRENCH Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy yesterday called for quotas on immigration to France, and said he is aiming for a 50% increase in the number of illegal immigrants to be deported this year.

“I want the government and parliament to recognise the right to fix, category by category, the number of people allowed to install themselves on our territory,” he said.

Mr Sarkozy called for a points system so that France could select immigrants who are qualified workers, entrepreneurs and researchers.

“Less than 5% of immigrants come in response to the specific needs of the economy,” he said. “We don’t take in those we need and we submit to those whom we don’t need, without controlling them. It is a lose-lose system. I want a win-win system.”

Without directly contradicting Mr Sarkozy, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said later that quotas should not be imposed by race or nationality.

“It is not in the spirit of our country,” he said.