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France: curbs unlawful

01 July 2003

The French Constitutional Court has rejected or amended eight of the 53 articles in the new immigration Act just passed by the parliament, and means that new legislation will have to be presented on some of the areas covered (see Statewatch, vol 3 no 3). The measures opposed by the Court included a measure which would have allowed mayors to refuse weddings between foreigners and French citizens if they suspected they were marriages of convenience with the aim of obtaining residence papers. The Court declared illegal provisions to ban foreign students from bringing their wives and children into France, the proposal to introduce a one year ban on expelled foreigners (which it said was contrary to the UN Declaration on Human Rights), and the abolition of the right of appeal for asylum-seekers whose applications had been turned down. It also warned against the abuse of random identity checks, and said that foreign residents had the same rights as French people under the constitution (which will stop moves to deprive some foreigners and political refugees of social security), and the increase in detention from 7 to 10 days for foreigners subject to an expulsion order.

Charles Pasqua, the French Interior Minister, who has called for "zero immigration" was especially angry at the Court's opposition to giving senior civil servants the power to block applications for political refugees. This is the second major issue on which the Constitutional Court has overruled the policies of Mr Pasqua. In July the Court ruled that the government had to abide by the Schengen Agreement (between nine EC states) because international treaties took precedence over national laws.

Andr Nkala, an Angolan resident in Paris, fled a police identity check and drowned when he threw himself into the river Seine. The police said that officers had stopped him and a companion for "bizarre behaviour". When stopped Nkala produced a photocopy of his papers but the officers said he had to come to the police station for further questioning.

Guardian 16.8.93; Independent 16.8.93; European 19.8.93.