FRANCE: Deportations up (1)
01 January 1991
FRANCE: Deportations up
artdoc August=1994
Deportations of non-French nationals have increased markedly in
France since last year's new immigration laws came in. Known as
the `Pasqua Laws' after the Interior minister Charles Pasqua they
restricted nationality rights and were, in his words, aimed at
`zero immigration'. Since February this year, the Police de
l'Aire et des Frontières (a component of the new immigration
police unit DICILEC) has been acting as an agency for
deportations, with the Office for Removal. Most of those deported
have been from the North African magreb countries, such as
Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia, but Turks and black Africans have
also been expelled.
In the three months up to mid-June, 2,666 people have been
deported back to their country of origin, a 23% increase on the
same period last year. The Interior Ministry put out a statement
saying that as a result of the `new system' they had managed to
reduce failed deportations by 80%.
The government has stopped chartering special flights for
deportations and is now using regular Air France flights instead.
It is also negotiating with foreign airlines to handle
deportations from provincial airports, and has stressed the need
to `handle deportees in a decent manner to avoid incidents with
other passengers'. The police at the Office for Removal have been
directed to order deportees to their local prefecture for
`regularisation of papers', and put them on a flight the same
evening. Many of those deported in this manner are married to
French nationals or have other familial ties in France.
Entry has also become increasingly difficult for non-French
nationals. In 1993, 46,892 people were stopped at the borders and
turned away, with only 7% of these being given the right of
appeal. Between 1 January and 30 April this year the police
refused admission to 21,132 people, an increase of 8.75% over the
same period in 1993.
A campaign has now been mounted in France in support of foreign
teachers who were recruited to come and work in the country
because of shortages of qualified teachers during the 1980s.
Thousands of such teachers were stripped of their teaching
licences in June and being without work permits are now
threatened with deportation.
Reflex, Paris.
Statewatch, Vol 4 no 4, July-August 1994