PRESSURE is growing on the French authorities to start talks with over 300 illegal immigrants, as 10 of them enter their 47th day on hunger strike.
The 300, most of whom come from Mali in West Africa, have no residence permits and were ordered by the government to leave France by last Saturday. But they have refused and for the past 53 days have been occupying the Church of St Bernard in northern Paris.
Most of them have lived in France for years under short term residence permits. But in 1993 the then interior minister, Mr Charles Pasqua, brought in new laws in an attempt to reduce immigration to zero.
Hundreds of people have joined the immigrants to prevent the police from moving in to deport them. They include celebrities such as the actress Emmanuelle Beart.
As TV crews filmed her with some of the estimated 100 children in the church, spokesmen for the hunger strikers told journalists that the men were determined to carry through their action, even to death.
Inside, the church resembles a refugee camp. Each family has its own corner, with mattresses and sleeping bags on the floor.
The 10 hunger strikers are now in a side room, too weak to stay with the other immigrants. Doctors from Medecins du Monde are monitoring their condition.
Their determination was shown last Monday when some 300 police forcibly look them to hospitals in the Paris region. Within hours all 10 discharged themselves and returned to the church.
One part of the church is still reserved for prayer, but most of the chairs are stacked high around the altar. The immigrants have the full support of the local clergy.
Mothers sit breast feeding babies and young children run around. One little girl totters towards the door, potty in hand. Once at the door, she empties it at the feet of those standing around before running back to her mother and pointing to where she has deposited it.
Fatu Ndour is a 19 year old student. She has a students' visa but her mother, from Senegal, is one of the 300.
"I feel I will never really integrate here now. What has happened has made me almost hate this country and French people. It's something I can't understand, how they can reject people. In our country, our parents tell us to accept everybody."
The Prime Minister, Mr Alain Juppe, and two other government ministers have insisted publicly that they must apply the law and deport immigrants who are without papers.
The general secretary of the Communist Party, Mr Robert Hue, visited the church yesterday afternoon and called on President Chirac to intervene. The leader of the opposition Socialist Party, Mr Lionel Jospin, also called for negotiation.
A spokesman for the immigrants, Mr Boubacar Diop, called on Mr Chirac to start talks over the heads of government ministers.