These simultaneous law enforcement operations were called “Uber Eats”. Around ten undocumented delivery men working for platforms were arrested this week in Isère. The events took place Wednesday evening in Grenoble, Voiron and Vienne, targeting Algerian, Burkinabe, Guinean or Tunisian nationals, according to the national police.
Placed in police custody in Grenoble and Lyon, they were released after being notified of obligations to leave French territory (OQTF) and bans on returning to the territory (IRTF), declared Mohamed Fofana, CGT official. delivery men in Isère during a press point this Friday.
“We feel persecuted”
“We denounce this police operation (…) during a holiday season when migrant defense associations and many lawyers are on leave and appeals are complicated,” Mohamed Fofana also said. We are workers, not delinquents.” According to Alain Lavi, an official of the local CGT union, “Place Victor-Hugo (in Grenoble) was completely closed by police trucks. It was a trap. It’s called a raid when it targets a particular category of people.”
Several of the arrested delivery men testified to their “fear”. “We feel persecuted,” said one of them, speaking on condition of anonymity. Their bikes, their “work tools”, were seized, they lamented.
An “indignity” according to Eric Piolle
The town hall and the metropolis of Grenoble gave them their support. It is “a shame for the Republic to despise our institutions in this way,” said the deputy mayor of Grenoble Pierre Mériaux during the press briefing. What is unbearable is that we refuse to regularize workers who the economy needs.” According to him, the City will provide premises for bicycle delivery workers to rest and improve their access to the law.
The environmentalist mayor Eric Piolle had already denounced an “indignity” in a message published Thursday evening on the X network (formerly Twitter).
The Grenoble prosecutor, Eric Vaillant, responded that the checks had been carried out at his request and had “established that illegal delivery drivers were seriously exploited by those who sublet their licenses to them”. The Isère prefecture, for its part, stressed that it guarantees “the application of the laws of the Republic”.