France's national railway company SNCF has had to apologize following a controversial order asking employees to turn in any passenger “whose behavior could suggest extreme activism,” a few days ahead of the G20 meeting planned in Hamburg.
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The original note reportedly appeared on the walls of many SNCF offices early on Tuesday morning.
Workers were asked to pay extra attention to environmental activists coming from Notre Dame des Landes, the site of a controversial airport development project as well as demonstrators from the French Alps.
SNCF later issued a statement which said the note was a "local, unfortunate and regrettable initiative."
It added "it is not a document of the general management of SNCF ... any of the words can not bind the company or reflect its values," and offered the company's apologies for any offense caused.
A union leader from Sud Rail said the initial order “recalled the worst hours of (France's history),” referring to the SNCF's well-documented collaboration with the French state of Vichy during the Second World War to send the nation's Jews to concentration camps.
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He told StreetPress that the SNCF management usually issued such orders orally and said he believed undocumented migrants and asylum seekers are being targeted.
A recent report issued by Amnesty International criticized the French government for using the country's ongoing state of emergency against activists and for the excessive use of force.
In November 2015, at least 24 environmental activists were put under nationwide house arrest until the end of the COP21 Climate Change summit, due to concerns about undrest at the United Nations Conference.
A 21-year-old environmentalist was killed by a police grenade during protests against the Sivens dam, a development project in southern France, in November 2014.