Kurdish immigrants reach Corsica in rare French landing

Around 100 Kurdish immigrants, including 30 children, have been discovered on a beach on the French Mediterranean island of Corsica, police said on Friday.

While such landings happen regularly on Italian islands much further to the south, it is very rare for boatloads of refugees to reach French territory. 

The group of men, women and children were spotted at dawn on a beach near Bonifacio, in the far south of Corsica, and have been moved to a local gymnasium, said Jean-Jacques Casalot, a lieutenant in the local security services.                                           

"There is nothing really to worry about on a health level," he told France's iTele television station, adding that there were around 30 children aged under 10 and five pregnant women amongst the immigrants.                                           

"We were obviously quite surprised to see these Kurds reach Corsica because generally they appear on the Italian coastline," he said.

Local media reported that the group might have been dropped off by people traffickers up to 24 hours earlier and Casalot said coastguards were searching nearby waters to see if there were other immigrants in the area.                                           

Police said they were trying to ascertain the nationality of the group, adding that they might have come from Iraq and Syria.