A police report from across the channel says three women from Saudi Arabia who point blank refused to remove their burka's at Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport have been barred entry to France.

 A 2011 French law prohibits people from wearing Islamic face-covering veils anywhere in public.

A representative with the SGP-FO police union said today that border police requested the women to remove their veils after they arrived on a flight from Doha, Qatar.

The official said the women refused so French border police refused them entry into the country, and they were returned to Doha.

The official, who wished to remain anonymous as he was not authorised to speak publicly for the police.

Supporters of the ban say the veil contradicts France's principles of secularism and women's rights.

Some Muslim groups say it stigmatises moderate Muslims.

Unlike our own spineless, pro Muslim, government the French introduced a ban on all forms of Islamic head coverings, including the niqab and the burka, last year.

Islamic-rights campaigners said it was 'unconstitutional' but French leader Sarkozy said the ban was not directed at discriminating against Muslims but merely part of an effort to make France a more tolerant, inclusive society.
When it was introduced, he said the ban was aimed at halting criminals from hiding their faces from security staff and CCTV.

France became the first country in Europe to prohibit the veil, while similar legislation has since been passed in Belgium and Holland.

One has been proposed in Britain by a number of politicians, including Conservative backbenchers, but there are no immediate plans to introduce one.