Mali hero to be given citizenship
A MALIAN migrant who scaled a four-storey Paris block of flats with his bare hands to save a child was honoured by French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday and offered citizenship.
Two days after his daring Spiderman-style rescue -viewed millions of times online -- Mamoudou Gassama was received by Macron at the presidential palace.
“You have become an example because millions of people have seen you. It is only right that the nation be grateful,” Macron told the 22-year-old, adding that his immigration status would be “put in order”.
During the meeting, Macron also proposed that Gassama, who received a medal and certificate for bravery, join the French fire service.
“I was not thinking of anything. I went straight up,” the sporty youth, who wore jeans and a short-sleeved patterned shirt, said. “Bravo,” Macron replied. The act of heroism, which was the top news item for most French websites and TV channels, comes as French politicians debate a controversial bill that would speed up the deportation of economic migrants and failed asylum-seekers.
Gassama has been living illegally in France and working in construction after arriving in the country in September following a perilous journey from his homeland to Libya, then Italy.
Macron, a centrist, has taken a tough line on economic migrants fleeing poverty rather than refugees escaping war or persecution.
But Gassama’s exceptional act of heroism warranted an exceptional decision, he said.
Gassama leaped into action on Saturday evening on seeing a four-year-old child dangling in mid-air from a balcony halfway up a block of flats in the multi-ethnic 18th district of the French capital.
The video shows him pulling himself up from balcony to balcony as a man on the fourth floor tries to hold on to the child by leaning across from a neighbouring balcony.
A shy figure who was accompanied to the Elysee Palace by his elder brother, Gassama said he had acted instinctively.
Passersby raised the alarm on Saturday on noticing the little boy hanging in mid-air.
The boy’s father, who had reportedly gone out to the shop, has been taken into custody for leaving the child unattended.
The boy’s mother was not in Paris at the time of the incident. The child has been placed in state care. – AFP