{{The father of a Roma immigrant girl who has become a cause c\u00e9l\u00e8bre in France said on Friday that his family claimed to be from Kosovo in the hope of gaining pity \u2013 and political asylum.}}<\/p>\n
The lie didn\u2019t work, and he and his family were expelled as illegal immigrants. His revelation is the latest twist in a tale that has shaken the French government and sent thousands of French high school students protesting in the streets on behalf of Leonarda Dibrani and other similarly deported classmates.<\/p>\n
Dibrani, 15, was taken by police from a school field trip last week, then sent to Kosovo with her family. <\/p>\n
While such expulsions occur regularly as France tries to stem illegal immigration, the circumstances of the arrest \u2013 in front of Leonarda\u2019s shocked classmates and teachers \u2013 outraged many.<\/p>\n
France\u2019s Socialist government is investigating, with Interior Minister Manuel Valls saying he expected the results of the investigation on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, questions have surfaced over the Dibrani family history.<\/p>\n
Activists who worked with the family initially said they had fled Kosovo because of discrimination against Roma, or Gypsies, and limited opportunities.<\/p>\n
{{A lie for a better life}}<\/p>\n
But Leonarda\u2019s father, Reshat Dibrani, told The Associated Press on Friday that the Kosovo story was a lie aimed at achieving a better life for his six children.<\/p>\n
Presenting copies of their birth certificates, he said he was born in Kosovo but moved to Italy years ago, and that his children were born in Italy but don\u2019t have Italian citizenship. <\/p>\n
He believed they had a better chance at permanently settling in France than Italy, so he moved the family to France, claiming the whole family was from impoverished, post-war Kosovo.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe said in France that we had come from Kosovo so that we could get the papers,\u201d he said in Mitrovica, in northern Kosovo. \u201cIf I had told them that I am Kosovar and that [the children] were born in Italy, then France would say, ‘Go back to Italy’.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said many immigrant families try similar stories. \u201cYou look to do what\u2019s best for the family,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The case of the Dibrani family and an Armenian high school student expelled last weekend prompted protests by high school students around Paris. <\/p>\n
Thousands of teenagers, saying the expulsions are unfair to immigrant children trying to get an education and a better life, rallied peacefully at the Place de la Bastille.<\/p>\n
A few threw stones and pens at riot police trying to slow down their march, and were met by tear gas.<\/p>\n
Leonarda Dibrani said she\u2019s \u201cvery grateful\u201d for the students\u2019 support.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{{The father of a Roma immigrant girl who has become a cause c\u00e9l\u00e8bre in France said on Friday that his family claimed to be from Kosovo in the hope of gaining pity \u2013 and political asylum.}} The lie didn\u2019t work, and he and his family were expelled as illegal immigrants. His revelation is the latest […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2000048871,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[101],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-11014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-internationl","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":{"id":2000048871,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton11014.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton11014.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton11014.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton11014.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton11014.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton11014.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11014\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000048871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11014"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=11014"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=11014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}