France: trains to deport immigrants (1)
01 January 1991
France: trains to deport immigrants
artdoc August=1993
The French government announced in July their intention to
charter trains to send immigrants back to their country of
origin. This is the brainchild of Interior Minister Charles
Pasqua who had demonstrated his hardline attitude to non-whites
in France during the riots that shook Paris and Lyon just ten
days after the national elections last April.
It is planned to repatriate those immigrants who fall foul of
the new nationality code and immigration laws that were passed
by the French parliament at the end of June. Pasqua said he
intended to commandeer three carriages per train this summer to
transport people to Marseille, from where they would be put on
boats to North Africa.
He ordered Jacques Fournier, the chief of the SNCF, the French
state railway company, to study the logistics of the operation
and to carry out feasibility studies. Fournier, however, has made
clear that he is opposed to the measures. In a letter to the
anti-racist organisation MRAP, he said: `this subject touches on
fundamental guarantees of the person'. But he went on to point
out that the requisitioning was covered by law and that SNCF had
a legal obligation to carry out these orders.
Opposition to the charter trains has also come from virtually
the entire staff of SNCF, whose trade unions have announced that
they will use every means possible to prevent the trains leaving.
Pasqua has not set a specific date for the trains to start
departing with the transportees, but the unions say they will
publicise the dates as soon as they know them, to enable
demonstrations in the Gare de Lyon in Paris.
One of the problems that the union faces is the possibility of
mass sackings. Drivers and other staff who refuse to comply with
the requisition orders can be forced to do so under an old French
law which is basically equivalent to martial law. Those
railworkers refusing to work under this law will lose their jobs,
and have no right to an industrial tribunal.
If this situation were to occur, however, the government would
be in the unfortunate position of having to get immigrants
forcibly placed on the trains and physically try and get the
drivers to cooperate.
The whole scenario has been likened to the situation in France
during the Second World War, when the collaborationist Vichy
government requisitioned trains to transport French Jews to Nazi
Germany. This has led to widespread opposition with people
expressing their horror at a return to the fascist tactics of
yesteryear.
A large demonstration took place outside the Gare de Lyon on
12 July, where railworkers, anti-racist groups and others made
it clear that they would physically block the departure of the
trains, by standing on the track if necessary. `No to the trains
of shame' was the call accompanied by a loud chorus of `On the
tracks, on the tracks!'. Given the level of opposition, it
remains to be seen whether the French government can execute
their plan without incurring the wrath of not just French
citizens, but the rest of Europe too.
Reflex, Paris.
Statewatch vol 3 no 4 July-August 1993
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