Hundreds of migrants occupy airport

Hundreds of undocumented immigrants occupied France’s biggest airport on Sunday, filling an entire terminal and demanding to see the country’s prime minister.

Footage posted on Twitter shows roughly 500 migrants chanting in Terminal 2 of Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, as about a dozen riot police in tactical gear hold them back.

“France does not belong to the French! Everyone has a right to be here!” one protester can be heard yelling into a loudspeaker.
 

#Breaking: Just in - Reports that undocumented immigrants are protesting in the Charles de Gaulle Airport in #Paris right now and won't let people board their flights until they meet and talk with with the prime minister Édouard Philippe of #France, Riot CRS police on the scene. pic.twitter.com/fextoWCs6S

— Sotiri Dimpinoudis ❁‏ (@sotiridi) May 19, 2019

The migrants reportedly refused to let passengers board until their demands were met, in a protest one warned would not be the last.

The demonstration was organised by the migrant support group “La Chapelle Debout,” which said its members call themselves “Black Vests.”

The group comes amid the country’s months-long “Yellow Vests movement” over tax reforms; French citizens are required to carry yellow vests in their vehicles for emergencies.

In an official statement, the group asked to meet with Prime Minister Edouard Philippe over the country’s asylum policy and the leaders of Air France. They demanded that the airline “stop any financial, material, logistical or political participation in deportations.”

Later on Sunday, an Air France delegation met with the group, a member told local newspaper Le Parisien.

“We have targeted Air France, and other actions will follow,” one migrant told the paper.

The protest shut down the terminal, although airport operator Aeroports de Paris said no flights had been affected.

This article originally appeared on The New York Post and is published here with permission.