French airport police detain 6-year-old girl in ID crackdown

 Paris airport police held a 6-year-old French girl for three days on suspicion she had a fake passport until a judge ordered her released into her mother’s arms, a lawyer said on Friday.

Authorities insist that police were just doing their jobs to protect children from trafficking, but the case has caused indignation in France amid sensitive debate over police treatment of waves of undocumented migrants coming to Europe in recent months.

The girl was detained Saturday at Charles de Gaulle airport, after arriving from Cameroon, said lawyer Sidonie <g data-gr-id="16">Leoue</g>. The girl was traveling as an unaccompanied minor carrying all necessary documents, and her mother was waiting at the Paris airport to greet her, <g data-gr-id="17">Leoue</g> said.

She waited three days.

Police thought the girl’s passport photo didn’t resemble <g data-gr-id="15">her,</g> and suspected a fake, according to the lawyer and the French Interior Ministry.