“France was a model for me. But where is the equality, the fraternity? » Nissia Messaoui does not take off. Arriving from Odessa on March 3, the Algerian paramedic student has just received an “obligation to leave French territory” (OQTF) from the Yvelines prefecture. At 28, the young woman does not plan to return to her country of origin, against which she harbors frank resentment. “How do you expect me to go back to a country that has done nothing for me? At the start of the war, when I called the embassy to ask for repatriation, they hung up on me. I would rather go back to Ukraine than go back to Algeria”she lets go.
That day, Nissia Messaoui was visiting Paris-8 University, where the collective Le Poing levé helps foreign students who have fled Ukraine to enroll at university, in order to increase their chances of staying. in France. For the moment, out of the hundreds of applications filed, only a handful have been validated. “The universities are afraid of alienating the prefects, assumes Léo Valadim, member of the collective. And it’s a financial cost to them. They have to pay for registrations out of their own pockets. »
The collective receives more and more students ordered to leave the territory. “The differential treatment of these people, who experience the same traumas of exile, separation and uncertainty of the future as those with Ukrainian nationality, is unacceptable, was indignant in a press release, Tuesday, June 7, the French Coordination for the right of asylum, which brings together seventeen organizations including Catholic Relief, the League of Human Rights or the Cimade. For many of them, a return to their country of origin would jeopardize the continuity of their academic career or their professional life. »
“We lived through the same war”
The Council of the European Union (EU) had decided, at the beginning of March, to grant temporary protection – including a right of residence and access to the labor market – to Ukrainians fleeing the war. This decision provided that protection would also be granted to “third country nationals (…) residing legally in Ukraine who are unable to return to their country or region of origin in safe and sustainable conditions”. “We call for the expansion of the categories benefiting from temporary protection and the end of discriminatory and unfair treatment based on nationality”insists Mélanie Louis, of Cimade, who sees an increase in cases of refusal of temporary protection, sometimes accompanied by OQTF.
Inza Toure, a 27-year-old Ivorian, was following a master’s degree in international relations at the Dnipro Customs and Finance University. The young man took refuge in Chambéry, because he speaks French and has distant family in the department. On May 23, the prefect notified him of an OQTF. A decision that the person concerned will challenge before the administrative court, while he has also been admitted to Sciences Po Grenoble for the 2022-2023 academic year. “I would like to return to Côte d’Ivoire with at least a diploma to be able to find work”he argues.
Alaedine Ayad was following a doctorate in microelectronics and photovoltaics in kyiv. He is one of the handful of foreign students who have obtained registration at the University of La Sorbonne to follow a university degree there to return to higher education for exiled people. Despite this, this big guy fears receiving an OQTF.
“To return to Algeria is to lose everything. My training does not exist there, he justifies himself. Imagine, you study to become an electronics engineer and you end up in a snack bar selling tacos and pizzas? » He claims to have obtained a proposal to join a photovoltaic research laboratory but, for lack of a work permit, he cannot accept it. This son of a nurse, whose maternal grandfather is buried in France after having served in the 1950s in the French army, is bitter. “Why aren’t we treated like Ukrainians? We came together, we lived through the same war. »
Even if an OQTF has not systematically been taken against them, foreigners excluded from temporary protection find themselves “without right of residence, says Melanie Louis. They are therefore in an irregular situation and can be arrested at any time. » Solicited by The worldthe Ministry of the Interior did not respond.
“I spent seven years in Ukraine, I built a life there”
For several days, the idea of going back to Ukraine has been tormenting Hans and his girlfriend Rachel (the first names have been changed). These Congolese students, who arrived from Dnipro on March 12 and excluded from temporary protection, are disillusioned. “Here, we don’t live, we survive. Without work, without money, you have no future”, loose Hans, 27 years old. For the moment, they are accommodated, with other refugees from Ukraine, in a low-cost hotel in Blanc-Mesnil (Seine-Saint Denis). For the past three months, they have taken their courses online, given by their Ukrainian teachers. He has just completed his sixth year of medicine, she her marketing license. “What am I going to do in the Congo? I spent seven years in Ukraine, I built a life there. If I have to leave France, I will return to Ukraine. At least I won’t be illegal there.”, repeats Hans. The couple now fears being expelled from the hotel where they are staying.
This is what happened to a 48-year-old Armenian woman and her 25-year-old daughter. “They were kicked out of their hotel on May 30”, assures their lawyer Solenn Leprince, who challenges the refusal to grant temporary protection before the administrative court of Rouen. The woman and her daughter had lived in Ukraine since 2006, where they own an apartment and where the mother runs a cosmetics business. “They have no family in Armenia”assures their lawyer.
Me Leprince defends other Armenians who have been refused temporary protection by the Seine-Maritime prefecture. Among them, a woman and her son established in Ukraine since 1990 and holders of a permanent residence permit, or a couple settled in Ukraine for almost thirty years, where they own a cattle breeding and a cattle transport company, while their son is a doctor. As they fled the Zaporizhia region in the face of advancing Russian troops, they joined family in Normandy. Alas, they are there today in an irregular situation.
In a similar situation, Jonathan B. clings to his football dreams. This Ivorian, former player of the Metalist 1925 club in Kharkiv, kills time by training three times a week at the Delaune stadium with the senior team of Saint-Denis US, in Seine-Saint-Denis. “I’m not asking for anything, just to be able to work. I can’t even afford a bus ticket”, he confides. Every Sunday, he goes to mass and prays to find a club and a contract. To stay in France.