Emotion swept away by political recoveries. With invectives from far-right parties against the government’s so-called inaction on immigration, the emotion provoked by the barbaric murder of Lola has given way to the debate around irregular immigration and removal procedures.
Suspected of having killed the 12-year-old girl, Dahbia B. was indicted for “murder” and “aggravated rape” and then imprisoned on Monday. The 24-year-old Algerian had been subject to an obligation to leave French territory, or OQTF, since August 22. “We are working hard to ensure that the evictions” are “followed by effects”, but “we obviously have to do better”, thus conceded the government spokesman, Olivier Véran, after the Council of ministers, Wednesday. But how do these removal decisions work? Who do they concern and how are they put into practice?
Who is affected by an obligation to leave French territory?
Called OQTF in the judicial community, this procedure decided by the prefect concerns people in an irregular situation on the territory (entered illegally or whose residence permit is no longer valid) or people representing “a threat to public order and has been living in France for less than three months”, explains the site of the interior ministry.
In the case of Dahbia B., she entered the territory legally in 2016 thanks to a student visa, according to the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin. Unemployed, Dahbia B. was arrested on August 21 by the PAF (the air and border police), in a French airport, for lack of a residence permit. An obligation to leave French territory (OQTF) within thirty days was then issued to him automatically.
What are the differences between OQTFs with and without a thirty-day period?
This thirty-day period is the automatic period for all persons covered by this procedure in the context of what is called “voluntary departure”. They can then leave the territory whenever they want during this period. “The decision also sets the country where you will be sent back if you do not voluntarily leave France within the set deadline,” according to the ministry. Nevertheless, the prefect can, in certain cases, issue an OQTF without delay. It is then an obligation to leave the territory immediately. This was not the case for Dahbia B. because “there was no reason for it to be otherwise, these are our rules”, said recalled to the hemicycle the Minister of Justice Eric Dupond-Moretti Monday. Since 2018, the suspect was only known to the police as victims of domestic violence. The thirty-day period was nevertheless exceeded at the time of the facts with which he is charged.
The obligations to leave the territory without delay thus concern people who represent a threat to public order, people who are “the subject of a refusal to issue or renew a residence permit for fraud or because of the manifestly unfounded of the request “or the people who risk” fleeing “, specifies the Ministry of the Interior. They have forty-eight hours to leave after notification of the decision. If you do not apply the decision, you are considered to be in an illegal situation.
In which cases can an OQTF be suspended?
Any decision taken by the prefect must be reasoned. That is to say, he must give reasons for issuing this OQTF. It can also be challenged. The person concerned has the possibility of making an appeal concerning the refusal of the residence permit, the ban on returning to France which may appear in the OQTF or even the “decision fixing the country of return (for example, if you consider that you will be at risk in this country)”, explains the Ministry of the Interior.
This appeal suspends the decision. “From the moment an appeal is filed with the administrative court, the execution of the OQTF is suspended until the court renders its decision. If the administrative court has not rendered its decision within the thirty-day period, the OQTF is suspended and the person can remain on French territory for the time of his examination”, explains the lawyer specializing in the law of foreigners. , Nicolas De Sa-Pallix, contacted by 20 minutes. Eric Dupond-Moretti admitted not knowing “if an appeal has not been brought” by the lawyer for the suspect in Lola’s murder.
In addition, the person targeted by an OQTF can apply for legal aid. Again, the decision taken by the prefect will then be suspended until a lawyer is appointed, adds Nicolas De Sa-Pallix.
How are OQTFs applied?
Concretely, these obligations to leave the territory are done voluntarily within the time limit imposed. But “in the event of an identity check, if the police identify an OQTF targeting the person checked, they will then be placed in an administrative detention center”, develops Me De Sa-Pallix. And under certain rather exceptional conditions, the police can go to the home of the person who will then be placed in an administrative detention centre, “but this concerns more deportation orders or when there is a risk for the safety of the state, says the lawyer. Most often, they receive a notification by post. It is good at this stage to remember that Dahbia B. was homeless.
How many of these notifications are applied? A report from the Senate dated November 18, 2021 pointed to “the chronic weakness of the execution rates” of the OQTFs. While it is difficult for the lawyer to confirm or deny an increase in the OQTFs pronounced, he notes that “more and more OQTFs, whether or not linked to refusal of a residence permit, target people who have not been covered three or four years ago. Moreover, these OQTFs are often canceled by the administrative jurisdiction”.
But for Nicolas De Sa-Pallix, these figures are in any case “not complete”: “we count the OQTFs pronounced by those which have been canceled by the judge or repealed by the administration”. Especially since there are also specific cases of “neither, nor” foreigners, namely foreigners “neither regularizable nor deportable”. “They are in a gray area because their residence permit may have been definitively refused but they cannot be sent back to their country of origin for lack of an air link or in view of the political situation”, illustrates Me De Sa-Pallix. This is the case for foreigners from Afghanistan.