Dozens of illegal immigrants employed by a subsidiary of France postal carrier La Poste have gone on strike in Essonne in the hopes that their actions will lead to the government giving them residency.
The illegal migrants, who work for the parcel delivery company DPD, began their strike on Monday in the commune of Coudray-Montceaux, located just south of Paris.
In a statement, the illegal immigrants claimed that they had been mistreated by the company and that they had been subject to “inhumane working conditions”, unpaid working hours, and errors on paycheques, newspaper Le Figaro reports.
Local unions also stated that the migrants are demanding to be given residency permits as part of their demands to end the strike.
Catherine Fayet, secretary of the Solidaires 91 Union, commented on the strike, saying, “La Poste and the temporary employment agencies subcontract (…) a workforce that they can easily find and exploit.”
The strike comes just weeks after hundreds of illegal immigrants in the Paris region went on strike to demand residency. the migrants are said to have been in various industries including catering, waste collection and delivery services.
The strike was organised by the General Confederation of Labour (CGT) which demanded the government give the workers the needed work permits so they could work legally in the country.
Illegal migrants are often employed in industries such as food delivery and a report released last month in neighbouring Belgium revealed that illegals made up the majority of food delivery drivers in the nation’s capital of Brussels.
According to an investigation by Belgian media, most of the dozens of delivery drivers they interviewed came into the country illegally and had no valid work permits.
Companies have pushed back on the issue, with Deliveroo stating that it has a zero-tolerance policy toward people allowing illegal immigrants to use their accounts to deliver food on their platform, while Uber Eats claims it has a system that required drivers to take selfies to prove their identity.
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