Gérald Darmanin on Thursday asked the prefects to tighten the application of the obligations to leave French territory (OQTF) towards “all” foreigners in an irregular situation and no longer only “delinquent foreigners”, priority targets of his bill on immigration. Since 2020, 3,500 foreigners “posing a threat to public order” have been expelled, according to the Interior Ministry.
“I ask you to apply to all foreigners under OQTF the method used for monitoring delinquent foreigners”, writes the Minister of the Interior in an instruction consulted by AFP.
Systematic registration of people under OQTF at the FPR
For this, the minister calls on the prefects to issue these measures “following an arrest or a refusal of a residence permit” and to “exert a real ‘residence police'”. In addition to the reminder of the law already applicable, Gérald Darmanin requests the “systematic” registration of people under OQTF in the File of wanted persons (RPF) in order to “count all foreigners under OQTF leaving the national territory, which is not the case today”.
This systematic registration would, according to Gérald Darmanin, make it possible to better assess the rate of execution of OQTFs, estimated today at less than 10% out of an annual total of 120,000 measurements. The right and the extreme right regularly denounce this rate of execution of OQTFs, one of the lowest in Europe, a symbol according to them of the impotence of the State in terms of expulsions. A recurring debate which has been revived since the murder of a 12-year-old girl, Lola, whose suspect is an Algerian national under the influence of an OQTF.
22% increase in measures taken, says Darmanin
The number of these measures carried out is up by 22% in 2022, says the minister in his instruction. Gérald Darmanin also asks that foreigners under OQTF be “systematically” assigned to residence, “to a reliable address” and not “of convenience”, when they cannot be placed in an administrative detention center.
He also recalls his desire to make the lives of people under OQTF “impossible” by ensuring that they see their social rights suspended. At the beginning of 2023, the Minister of the Interior must present a bill aimed in particular at reforming asylum procedures to achieve more expulsions, in particular by dividing by three the possibilities of appeal.