French government unveils bill with tougher immigration rules
● Human rights groups say process more difficult for asylum seekers
French President Emmanuel Macron’s government has presented a bill to enforce tougher immigration rules, which human rights organisations criticise as repressive toward asylum-seekers.
The government says the bill, presented at a Cabinet meeting yesterday, aims to accelerate expulsion of people who do not qualify for asylum. It also wants to provide better conditions for those allowed to stay in the country, such as offering more French classes and job training.
Interior minister Gerard Collomb said the plan is “balanced” and “is aligned with European procedures”.
The plan will reduce the consideration period for an application for asylum to a maximum of six months, down from about one year including appeal.
Human rights activists say the quicker process will make it more difficult for asylumseekers to defend their rights.
The plan would also allow authorities to hold migrants who are staying illegally in the country in closed centres for up to 90 days instead of the current 45, in order to organise their deportation.
Under the bill, people illegally crossing borders of the EU travel-free zone will be fined €3,750 (£3,312) .
Some organisations helping migrants, including the French Human Rights League, have called for street protests in Paris yesterday to denounce “governmental policies that infringe on migrants’ freedoms”.
Some public agents in charge of asylum procedures were on strike yesterday.
Cyrielle Taezin, an employee at the national court of asylum, said migrants will not have enough time to prepare their request.
“They have experienced trauma,” she said. “They need psychological checks. They need time to express what they’ve gone through.”
Alain Esmery, an activist with the Human Rights League, noted that Mr Macron called last month for humanity and firmness toward migrants.
“The interior minister must be hard of hearing because he has heard ‘firmness, firmness,”’ Mr Esmery said.
Laurent Giovannoni, of Secours Catholique, said the new law would trigger the expulsion of anyone not classified as a war refugee in the strictest sense, meaning scores of people in dire need or danger would be forced out.
“This policy belongs to the past,” said Mr Giovannoni, who said he had been shown the latest draft of the bill.
Mr Macron, elected in May after a contest with Marine Le Pen, the head of the anti immigrant national front, has promised to speed up processing asylum requests while also ensuring that those who do not qualify are dealt with more firmly.
He broke away from oth- er matters at a news conference in Rome last week to say: “Nothing in the policy being pursued by the government calls the right of asylum into question, but asylum does not mean welcoming people indiscriminately.”
Currently, just 4 per cent of people refused asylum are expelled, said Christophe Castaner, a Macron ally who said political leaders of all hues had let the matter fester for too long. “That’s not acceptable,” Mr Castaner said. “We’re not in a position to welcome a million people in from Libya.”
Mr Castaner said Germany had led Europe in throwing its doors open to more than a million migrants fleeing conflict, primarily from Syria. But around 300,000 of those who entered Germany had nonetheless been refused asylum, he said.
Official figures show that more than 100,000 people applied for asylum in France in 2017, up 17 per cent from the year before. About 36 per cent of applicants were granted refugee status.
The bill is to be debated in parliament in April.