French aid workers jailed in Chad arrive back home

Six French charity workers sentenced to eight years forced labour in Chad for trying to kidnap 103 children arrived back in France last night. The six arrived at Le Bourget, north of Paris, at 9pm local time. The move has caused protests in the former French colony in central Africa, Chadians decrying what they see as special treatment for Europeans.

Repatriation requests are allowed under a 1976 accord between both countries, but France does not have forced labour for convicts. The six are being held in jail where they are hopeful the French justice system will reduce their terms.

A spokesman for President Nicolas Sarkozy said the transfer showed his resolve to win the aid workers' release. M. Sarkozy had "pledged, before the families of the six French nationals, that he would spare no effort to win their return to France as soon as possible," said David Martinon.

Security at the airport was high, with members of the media and supporters of the aid workers kept outside the site. Family members waited outside the walls in hopes of catching a glimpse of their loved ones.

Christine Peligat, the wife of the Zoe's Ark charity member Alain Peligat, called the transfer "a good thing" and said she and other relatives and friends would stay near the airport to welcome the aid workers home. "What we hope for now is an adjustment of the sentences to make them as adapted as possible," she said.

In October, Chadian authorities stopped the aid group's convoy with the children the charity was planning to fly to France. The six insisted they were driven by compassion to help orphans in Darfur, which borders Chad. But authorities found most of the children had at least one parent or close relative and they did not come from Darfur.

One relative, Nassour Gardia, told the court: "They tricked us by telling us our children would be taught here. And then they herded them like cattle to sell in France."

The case has embarrassed France, and M. Sarkozy went to Chad in November to bring home three French journalists and four Spanish flight crew members charged in the case.

Other aid workers say their job along Darfur's border has been complicated by the suspicion some Chadians now have toward all foreigners professing to offer help. Days after the Zoe's Ark arrests, the Republic of Congo announced it was suspending all international adoptions because of the events in Chad. AP