My French friends warned this coming after Sarkozy won presidential elections. They expect further deterioration of French democracy under current regime. So far they proved to be right... More to come?
AFP: France’s immigration minister summoned some 20 local government heads for a meeting on Wednesday to demand that they step up deportations of illegal migrants. Immigration Minister Brice Hortefeux called in “prefects who must improve their figures when it comes to border exits,” said a ministry spokesman. President Nicolas Sarkozy, who won election in May on a platform that called for tightening controls on immigration, has set a target of 25,000 deportations for 2007. But fewer than 9,000 illegal migrants were deported in the first five months of the year, according to Hortefeux, who said this week that he was nevertheless confident of reaching the target. The shortfall followed the entry of Romania and Bulgaria in the European Union, complicating the deportation process of Roma who used to make up about 30 percent of all illegal foreigners deported from France.
Between 200,000 and 400,000 illegal foreigners are currently living in France. French authorities recently faced harsh criticism over deportations after a 12-year-old Russian boy was seriously injured falling from the fourth floor of a building during an attempt by the family of illegal migrants to avert arrest. Amnesty International and other rights groups have protested against the government campaign to meet deportation quotas and the policy is raising objections from other quarters. A group of Air France pilot and steward unions in July asked for an end to the use of the airline’s planes for deportations, saying the expulsions can pose a security risk and cause disturbance.
Hortefeux is due to present to parliament next week a new bill that tightens the rules under which foreigners can join family members in France. The bill stipulates that they must pass a French language test and that a foreigner living in France must show that he has the means to support family members. The opposition Socialist Party has said that it will vote against the bill, accusing the government of violating “the fundamental right to live as a family”. “This bill will deprive French nationals who are legal residents on French territory of their fundamental right to live as a family, just because they married a foreigner,” said Socialist MP George-Pau Langevin.
*news and picture via Gays without Borders
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4 comments:
well, as you said, it's what was expected of Sarkozy, who's SOOO French himself, isn't he.
Rhiannon.
This reminded me a conversation I had some time ago with a friend who is British of Asian origin. She said that the most horrible experience at British airport passport control services she got from other Asians who questioned her (a British national!) based on her look. At times people who have power in countries of not their original ethnicity trying too hard to prove their 'devotion' conveniently 'forgetting' their own roots...
As expected...
BBC reports today :
The French National Assembly has passed a controversial bill tightening entry conditions for the relatives of immigrants living in France. Under the legislation, the relatives will have to prove they are solvent financially and can speak French. It also includes plans for DNA testing of foreigners seeking to join family members living in France.
[...]
The legislation would require immigrant family members older than 16 to take a test in their country of origin, demonstrating a good knowledge of French language and values.
Applicants would also have to prove that their family in France could support them and earn at least the minimum wage.
[...]
If immigration officials doubt that an applicant is a genuine relative of the person they seek to join, they could be asked to take - and pay for - a DNA test to prove a biological link.
An amendment to the bill on these tests says they will be carried out for a trial period of only two years.
«La France nous oblige à partir vers la mort»
Arrêtés lundi matin à 7 heures Yekaterina et Vladimir Popov devaient être expulsés mardi à 9 heures. Voir le post d’hier sur les expulsions à flux tendu. Ils ont été transportés au centre de rétention de Oissel avec leurs deux enfants Véronique (4 ans) et Geoffrey (quelques mois) mais une nouvelle tentative d’expulsion est prévue pour demain vendredi, 31 août.
Connaissant les risques qu’ils encourent en cas de retour au Kazakhstan, ils supplient les autorités françaises de les autoriser à laisser leurs enfants Véronique et Geoffrey à leur grand-mère maternelle.
Ils demandent que leur déclaration ci-dessous soit diffusée et portée à la connaissance du public afin que chacun mesure les horreurs auxquelles conduit l’acharnement du gouvernement contre les sans-papiers en général et contre cette famille en particulier.
Richard Moyon
«La France nous oblige à partir vers la mort, c'est sûr à cent pour cent. Encore plus depuis que la préfecture des Ardennes a fait faire une enquête auprès de la police du Kazakhstan, le KNB, ancien KGB.
Tout le monde peut comprendre qu'il est impossible pour nous de rentrer sans danger au Kazakhstan, où les Russes qui restent sont déjà très brimés.
Véronique et Geoffrey, nos deux enfants aussi trouveront la mort là-bas, et quelle mort ! Quand les gendarmes sont venus nous chercher, j'ai voulu laisser mes enfants à ma mère ; ils m'ont dit non, les enfants viennent avec vous.
Si on nous embarquait de force, qu'on ait au moins pitié de nos enfants, qu'ils soient confiés à ma mère.»
• Yekaterina et Vladimir Popov •
Il ne reste que quelques heures pour sauver Yekaterina et Vladimir Popov et leurs enfants Véronique et Geoffrey.
http://sanspapiers.blogs.liberation.fr/sans_papiers/2007/08/jusquo-le-cresc.html
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