Double standards row over French hero migrant

FRANCE has been accused of double standards for refusing residency to a “heroic” Tunisian 25-year-old who saved two children from a burning building while offering a Malian migrant French nationality and a job for saving a four-year-old boy dangling from a balcony.

Footage of “Spiderman” Mamoudou Gassama, 22, scaling a building in Paris a week ago was viewed by millions and saw him invited to the Elysée Palace to meet Emmanuel Macron, the president, who offered him a medal, French residency and a job as a fireman.

However, supporters of another migrant without papers, a Tunisian known only as Ayman L, say he is equally worthy of special treatment and yet he faces imminent deportation. After arriving in France in 2013, Ayman and two others

‘Must consider saving a baby by climbing a building more heroic than braving the flames to save children?’

rescued two children from a burning building in Fosses, near Paris. The three got a medal for their “act of bravery”.

However, Ayman, who has an IT diploma, has been refused a residency permit and has been ordered to leave France, a decision upheld by the regional state prefect despite a request by the local mayor to consider his request favourably. Philippine Parastatis, his lawyer, has asked to meet Mr Macron so that “he can explain to me how to prioritise acts of bravery”.

“Must one consider that saving a baby by climbing a building is more heroic than braving the flames to save two children? What a stroke of bad luck he wasn’t filmed,” she told Le Parisien.

The case hit media as police in Paris evacuated around 1,200 people from the largest two remaining migrant camps in the French capital yesterday.