About 300 mainly West African immigrants are spending their second day occupying a Paris church in a protest over plans to deport them.

The immigrants, who also include some Asians, demand legal permission to remain in France. Tens of thousands of immigrants in the country lack official documentation.

Alain Woodrow of Catholic newspaper The Tablet speaks to The World Today (3'05")

The clergy at the Saint-Andre de Bobigny church, in a suburb just north-east of Paris, have expressed sympathy with the demands of the protestors and say the immigrants are welcome to stay.

Church protests by immigrants seeking to draw attention to their plight have taken place before in France.

Two years ago, international attention was focused on the plight of several hundred Africans who took over a church in northern Paris. Riot police smashed their way into it and evicted the occupiers, some of whom had been on hunger strike for weeks.

The BBC Paris correspondent says the change of government last year raised hopes of an amnesty for illegal immigrants but the issue has caused strains within the governing Socialist-led coalition.

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