Immigrant defense associations expressed concern on Monday about the government’s immigration bill, which they see as an “accumulation of repressive measures” and contrary to “humanist principles”, calling on parliamentarians to “reject” the text whose examination begins in the afternoon in the Senate. “The accumulation of repressive and security measures has become the guideline of the bill,” said Fanélie Carrey-Conte, general secretary of La Cimade, during a press conference of 35 associations and collectives of undocumented immigrants. in Paris.
A bill that “is not up to the challenges”
The text, defended by the Ministers of the Interior Gérald Darmanin and of Labor Olivier Dussopt, provides for a battery of measures intended to facilitate the expulsions of foreigners responsible for disturbing public order, an integration component in particular for undocumented workers , as well as a reform of the asylum system. “It’s terrible that in France, a country of human rights, we only associate migration issues with the assimilation of migrants/delinquents, with the words repression, stigmatization, expulsions, confinement,” listed Fanélie Carrey-Conte.
“Where is the welcome and the solidarity? At what point are we going to talk about the tragedies at the borders, the people who will continue to die on the migratory routes?”, she added, believing that the draft law is “not up to the challenges”.
Several amendments in the sights of associations
In a joint press release, the 35 organizations called on parliamentarians “to reject this text and finally have the courage to adopt a policy that respects fundamental rights.” Concerns also come from certain amendments tabled before the resumption of examination of the text, repeatedly postponed for a year. Starting with those of the government, some of which provide for the “detention of asylum seekers” or even a “limitation of family reunification”, lamented Delphine Rouilleault, general director of France Terre d’Asile.
Certain union centers, associations as well as academics also asked Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne on Monday to remove the amendments which “call into question the rights of the soil” for children born in France to foreign parents. Amendments tabled by the senatorial right which represent a “setback that has gone largely unnoticed”, wrote in a letter addressed to the Prime Minister a collective of around sixty signatories, including the leaders of the Human Rights League, the CGT, or the historian Benjamin Stora.
Benoît Hamon steps up to the plate
Former socialist minister Benoît Hamon, who now heads the NGO Singa, which works for the socio-economic inclusion of refugees, agreed: “There is nothing wrong with this text,” he said. he declared to AFP. The bill, which will then be debated from December 11 in the National Assembly, “will probably be worse at the end” of its examination, because if the government “wants a majority, it is necessarily through a toughening” after an agreement with “the right, even the extreme right”, he anticipates.
“We have already tried” the repressive measures provided for in the text, explains Benoît Hamon: “Darmanin takes up what does not work, which has been the subject of 28 legal texts” since 1980. “It is the same inspiration which led to Brexit and the election of Giorgia Meloni in Italy, i.e. anti-immigration policies and in both cases entries into Italian and British territories were doubled. This text is orthogonal to all the humanist principles that exist (…). We must be against it,” insisted the former minister.