16 Sep, 2016 @ 14:40
1 min read

Migrant cleared of illegally entering France because he was arrested four inches inside Spanish territory

spain france border e

spain france borderA MIGRANT has been cleared of entering France illegally because the country’s border police arrested him 3.9 inches inside Spanish territory.

The Moroccan man was removed from a coach at the Perthus motorway border crossing in south west France.

He was taken to a detention centre before he appeared in a court in Perpignan.

His lawyer Christopher Poloni argued that the border between France and Spain, agreed in the 1659 Treaty of the Pyrenees, determined marker posts that are half a mile apart but are not actually shown on the ground.

According to Poloni, a line drawn between the two nearest markers showed his client was 10cm inside Spain when he was arrested.

The migrant has been released and the court ruled that he is now eligible to apply for asylum in France.

Laurence Dollimore

Laurence Dollimore is a Spanish-speaking, NCTJ-trained journalist with almost a decade’s worth of experience.
The London native has a BA in International Relations from the University of Leeds and and an MA in the same subject from Queen Mary University London.
He earned his gold star diploma in multimedia journalism at the prestigious News Associates in London in 2016, before immediately joining the Olive Press at their offices on the Costa del Sol.
After a five-year stint, Laurence returned to the UK to work as a senior reporter at the Mail Online, where he remained for two years before coming back to the Olive Press as Digital Editor in 2023.
He continues to work for the biggest newspapers in the UK, who hire him to investigate and report on stories in Spain.
These include the Daily Mail, Telegraph, Mail Online, Mail on Sunday and The Sun and Sun Online.
He has broken world exclusives on everything from the Madeleine McCann case to the anti-tourism movement in Tenerife.

GOT A STORY? Contact newsdesk@theolivepress.es or call +34 951 273 575 Twitter: @olivepress

1 Comment

  1. Of course, he already passed through Spain, so he could (indeed should) have claimed asylum there too. No migrant can actually be “illegal” if they are claiming asylum, this is the fallacy of it all. Next stop Calais, then Dover. Being non-Schengen means nothing to determined people.

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