Paris:- Saturday, 2. November 1996:- There is a story that has been playing in Paris for a good number of months, that is not, strictly speaking, one of ours. However, people from all parts of the world visit Paris and there is a remote chance that one of you may be asked by the police - to prove that you have a right to be in France.

For most people, flashing a passport is sufficient. Remember therefore, to carry yours.

For some people the story is different because they have no passport, or they have identity papers that are not correct, or - they have no papers at all. These are the 'sans-papiers.'

Since before last summer a large group of people 'sans-papiers' have been having a floating demonstration in Paris. These people want papers - or legal residence permits - and they believe they are entitled to them.

Some of these people are illegal immigrants. Some of them have lived in France a long time - many years - and they have children who were born here. Children who were born in France cannot be expelled because their parents do not have papers. Being parents of these children, does not guarantee receiving residence papers - and without these papers it is legally impossible to have a job or have a place to live. It is a 'Catch-22' situation.

It's no good saying these people shouldn't have come to France in the first place. Once here, they are subject to French law. If the law has its 'Catch-22' clauses, it doesn't matter whose fault it is - but in the meantime real people's lives - including childrens' - are on the line.

Last Tuesday, 450 people; men, women and children, trooped down to the 'Foreigner's Reception' on the boulevard de Sébastopole to demand papers and 150 cases were examined. Twenty were detained and arrested. Around noon, the rest were collected and hauled off to a police station, 'to have their IDs verified.'

Although the newspaper story says that most of the demonstrators were Chinese, it added that over 30 nationalities were involved. By Thursday, all those arrested were still being held, with several facing deportation.

On Wednesday I talked to a man from Africa, who has lived in France for six years. He told me he had found an employer willing to sponsor him and when they went to the administrative office, he was arrested. Another man, with three children, recently died as result of a hunger strike.

There are several groups of the 'sans-papiers' squatting in temporary lodgings around Paris, supported by religious groups, Human Rights activists and French union members. Evictions, when they occur, are said to be subject to increasing police force, which can not be welcomed by anybody except the nazis.

Crime - Those Clever Italians

The new counterfeit-proof 200 franc note had no sooner hit the streets before Italian police pounced on a gang between Rome and Naples that was getting ready to get their presses rolling. Investigators also found excellent examples of the old 200 franc note and the supposedly impossible to copy new 500 franc note as well. The older 'Pierre et Marie Curie' 500 franc note apparently was the Italian gang's specialty.

The phoney notes are sold to French wholesalers who then resell them to sub-contractors, and these in turn resell them again to lower-echelon dealers. In 1995 French investigators captured 180 million francs worth of phoney money; a small fraction of the billions that are supposed to be in circulation.

The new 200 franc 'Eiffel' has other problems as well. It is slightly smaller than the note it replaces and bank cash distributors can not handle it without modifications. The notes are loaded in cassettes and these will have to be modified in size, but there is also a note-recognition chip that requires new code - in sum: the cost of modifications to each dispenser is estimated to be between 1500 and 2,000 francs. There are 25,000 cash machines in France.

More Crime, and Perplexed Police

Police in eastern France are a little bit worried about a hard-working gang - or gangs - of safe-crackers, who have pulled off 22 heists in Lorraine alone since 6. March. Even with a special unit set p at Metz, the police complain that they can't watch every safe. I know that and the crooks know that; but I have never heard of a police force that would admit it.