They are future pastry chefs, bakers or butchers, carpenters or logisticians. They are Malians, Guineans or Ivorians. And are threatened with deportation. These young adults, students in the vocational stream and supported by their teachers, employers or associations, nevertheless believe that they are fully committed to integration initiatives. At a time when many economic sectors are reporting recruitment difficulties, such as the hotel and catering industry and construction, these situations are of concern.
Moussa (he did not wish to give his last name) holds a painter’s CAP and a roofer’s CAP, obtained at the Jean-Monnet high school in Montrouge (Hauts-de-Seine). This 21-year-old Malian, in France for five years and housed by a French aunt, applied for a residence permit, but was issued an obligation to leave French territory (OQTF) in January by the prefecture of the department. ” I don’t understand, he confides to the World. I provided all my reports, each time with encouragement or congratulations. A boss wanted to hire me but [à cause de l’OQTF], he could not. » Moussa lodged an appeal and, in the meantime, he enrolled in a plasterer’s CAP for the start of the school year in September.
Still in Hauts-de-Seine, another Malian, also named Moussa and holder of a professional baccalaureate in electricity, has also been under an obligation to leave the territory since March. Supported by child welfare between 2017 and 2021, Moussa, now 21, is accompanied by a boss with whom he has already completed several fixed-term contracts. “I don’t understand why I have an OQTF, I suffer a lot from it”, he said.
“Ubuesque Situations”
In this Ile-de-France department, these situations are multiplying, according to Armelle Gardien, of the Education Without Borders Network (RESF). “This issue absorbs almost all of our efforts, she testifies. Since 2021, we have been supporting eighty young people who have OQTFs. But the problem is general. »
Thus, in the Marne, Marie-Pierre Barrière, French teacher and member of RESF, counts nearly thirty young people threatened with expulsion and supported by the association. She mentions the case of Maurice Tolno, a 20-year-old Guinean with a cook’s CAP and deported on July 3 to Conakry. “He worked in a restaurant in Amiens, the boss found him excellent and wanted to hire him on a permanent contract”, underlines the activist, who specifies that an OQTF had been taken against her by the prefecture of Aisne, “under the pretext of inconsistencies in his life story during his assessment of minority with the child welfare service”.
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