About fifteen associations denounced Monday the government bill on immigration, “continuous deterioration of the rights of migrants”, on the eve of its presentation to the National Assembly during a debate without vote.
The text, the main lines of which are already known, will be the 29th on asylum and immigration since 1980. “An umpteenth bill (…) which always goes in the same direction, (…) a restriction of the conditions reception and a continuous deterioration of the rights of migrants”, pointed out Fanélie Carrey-Conte, general secretary of Cimade, during a press conference bringing together some fifteen associations at the headquarters of Amnesty International France in Paris.
“Risks of illegal refoulement”
This bill “crops a little more on the right to asylum, the right to a normal family life, the rights of the child and the right to a fair trial”, according to the president of Amnesty International France, Jean -Claude Samouiller.
In question, in particular, the will of the government to impose an obligation to leave French territory (OQTF) as soon as the asylum application is rejected, without waiting for a possible appeal. A measure that generates “risks of illegal refoulement”, before all remedies are exhausted, according to Samouiller.
Another reason for concern: the extension of the use of a single judge to the National Court for the Right of Asylum (CNDA), which rules mostly collegially, combined with a territorialisation, on the network of administrative courts, of this body currently based in the Paris region and divided into geographically specialized chambers.
Meeting with MPs
“The judge will have to be aware of all the persecutions in the world. We go from a specialist situation to a generalist situation, and it is (the judge) alone who will make his decision in the face of people who are risking their lives, ”said Samouiller to AFP.
The creation of a “short-term occupations” residence permit, although one of the axes most warmly welcomed by the associations during the consultations with the executive in November, is also meeting with some mistrust. Because this residence permit, for a period of one year renewable, would confine foreign workers to sectors under pressure, even though “many undocumented migrants are graduates, overqualified”, regretted Bchira Ben Nia, spokesperson for the Collective of undocumented migrants 75.
These same associations will meet in front of the National Assembly, Tuesday from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m., to meet the deputies ahead of the debate which will then be held in the Hemicycle.