Fatima, 10, faces deportation

After fleeing her country to escape FGM, 10-year-old Fatima is at risk of being deported from France.

"I want to stay in France, in this class which has been mine since October. I have friends, I'm fine. The journeys tire me, but I come to school every day. This letter from the police worry me … "

Slavery, torture, excision, genital mutilation, Libyans are forced to flee the country en masse to survive. This is the case with Fatima, who is only 10 years old. The girl traveled with her family a long way from the Ivory Coast, passing through Ghana, Burkina Faso, Niger, Italy and finally France. After living for many months in Libyan hell, this family, which thought it had escaped, is now threatened with deportation.

Indeed, the parents are both asylum seekers, but will be deported to Italy. “My daughter tells me that she is even ready to stay if we are expelled (…) It would be a disaster to go back to the camp, in Italy … There we were 10 per room, in stress, without exchanges ”, deplores Ibrahim Sangare, the father of the family, in the columns of the Parisian.

“I really believed that this hunt for foreign children, which we saw a few years ago, was over”

An unjust fate against which the Fernand-Labori establishment, in the 18th arrondissement of Paris, is fighting. Every day, Fatima takes an hour to get to this school, she goes by bus, train and metro, and even apologizes when she is a few minutes late.

One day, Fatima confided in her fifth grade teacher, Renaud, who immediately understood the gravity of the situation. "The parents, Ivorians, are asylum seekers for subsidiary protection, in short, so that their daughter escapes excision. They were given an order of deportation to Italy in application of the Dublin agreement : as their entry into the European Union was registered in Turin, France considers that this is where the application should be examined ", he emphasizes.

"But they have no ties to this country and don't speak the language. And then, I can't imagine for a moment seeing his empty chair in the classroom … I really believed that this hunt for foreign children, that we could see a few years ago, was over ", he told the Parisian.

A surge of solidarity

To prevent the expulsion of the Sangare family, a support banner was erected on the landing of the school. In addition, a petition has been put online, it already has nearly 3,000 signatures. “While the elected officials, Eric Lejoindre, the mayor (PS) of the 18th century or Ian Brossat, housing deputy (PCF) of Anne Hidalgo, multiply the letters to the prefect of police, Didier Lallement, to the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin. Unanswered until today ”, notes the Parisian.

The days of the Sangaré family are numbered, they have an appointment this Thursday, February 11 at the Paris police headquarters. To lend your support and get things done, sign the petition here.