A Syrian refugee armed with a knife injured six people Thursday morning, including four very young children in a park in Annecy. An “appalling” attack commented the president of the National Rally group in the National Assembly Marine Le Pen the day after the tragedy, at the microphone of Europe 1. “It’s the ultimate barbarism in our civilization. Attacking babies , stab them in their stroller. It is unimaginable for the whole of the French population. A certain number of questions arise now”, continued the former presidential candidate.
The assailant is a Syrian asylum seeker, who arrived on French territory last fall on a regular basis, because he had refugee status granted by the Swedish authorities. This is enough to relaunch the debate around European law and asylum procedures. “It is obvious that there were shortcomings. This individual should have been Dublined as soon as he applied for asylum in France. He should have been the subject of an accelerated procedure, in 15 days, [on aurait dû] establish that he already had the right to asylum in another country of the European Union and send him back to that country. That was not the case,” said Marine Le Pen.
“I don’t know how Sweden analyzed this file and that’s why I think that when a country in the European Union grants a right of asylum, the person who benefits from this right of asylum should not be able to go to the other countries of the European Union, except to apply for a visa”, she underlined.
“When someone applies for asylum, they are refused, they stay”
At the microphone of Europe 1, the president of the National Rally group at the National Assembly denounced the multiplication of failures. “We are overwhelmed with asylum applications and we do not have the means to send people back to their country, we do not give ourselves the means. When someone files an asylum application, they are refused, they stay,” she said. “The failures are multiplying, the tortious or criminal acts committed by people who should not be on the territory are also multiplying, and year after year, things are getting worse.”
Calling into question the structuring of the right of asylum, Marine Le Pen called for “restricting the right of asylum by setting real criteria”. “As a political leader, I feel obliged to provide answers and I believe that the French expect answers from us. it’s been going on for years and the reality is that no decision has been made,” she lamented.
137,000 asylum applications were filed in France in 2022, according to figures from the Ministry of the Interior. Applications mainly filed by people from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Turkey and Georgia. This Friday morning, government spokesman Olivier Véran said that two of the four children injured in the knife attack in Annecy are still in “vital emergency”.