Excerpt:
Around 100 far-right activists on Saturday tried to block a French alpine pass used by migrants in a bid to “ensure that no illegal immigrant can return to France”.
Members of the rightwing Generation Identity (GI) movement trudged through the snow up to Col de l’Echelle near the border with Italy, where they erected a “symbolic border” and unfurled a huge banner telling migrants to “go back to your homeland”.
The protesters also said they planned to spend the night there.
The pass is a “strategic point of passage for illegal immigrants” entering from Italy, GI spokesman Romain Espino told AFP, criticising what he called “a lack of courage of the public authorities”.
“With a little bit of will, we can control immigration and borders,” he added.