French President Emmanuel Macron’s government published the official text of the new immigration law in the official gazette on Saturday and has given officials preliminary instructions on how to implement it.
In the document presenting the law, the Ministry of the Interior announces four measures of immediate application which will be transmitted to the prefects as soon as the law is promulgated: facilitate the removal of foreigners whose behavior represents a serious threat to the public order, put an end to the detention of families with minors, organize the regularization of foreigners working in professions in shortage without the agreement of the employer, fight against trafficking and exploitation of foreigners.
After its passage before the constitutional judge, the law still includes numerous provisions, such as the removal of protections against decisions imposing an obligation to leave French territory, the creation of a reason for refusal or withdrawal of a document of stay held by a foreigner whose behavior manifests the rejection of the principles and values of the French Republic, the inclusion in the law of a new path to regularization, etc.
The law creates a file relating to people declaring themselves unaccompanied minors involved in offenses against criminal law. Thus, to facilitate the identification of minors declaring themselves temporarily or permanently deprived of the protection of their family against whom there is serious or consistent evidence making it likely that they could have participated, as perpetrators or accomplices, in offenses against criminal law or the establishment of a link between several offenses committed by a single one of these minors, the fingerprints, as well as a photograph of the latter, can be taken, stored and processed automated.
The data processing does not include a facial recognition device based on the photograph. The data can be collected as soon as the person declares a minor. The retention of data of persons recognized as minors is limited to the period strictly necessary for their care and guidance, taking into account their situation.
For the Cause Majeure! collective, which brings together former children placed at the ASE, this file constitutes “differentiated and discriminatory treatment for protected foreign children which will lead to additional difficulties in regularization upon reaching the age of majority”.
Likewise, the law removes the obligation for departments to take care of a former unaccompanied minor until the age of 21 if they are subject to an obligation to leave French territory. Young people from child protection who are the subject of an OQTF are therefore now excluded from community support until they turn 21. A “break inequality before the law” for Cause Majeur! : “The OQTF, like any administrative decision, must always be subject to appeal. However, for this, young people need the essential support of those who accompany them on a daily basis when they are entrusted to the ASE,” writes the association in a press release.
Finally, this new law toughens criminal sanctions against substandard housing. “The penalties incurred for offenses linked to unsanitary housing are increased when the occupant is a vulnerable person, particularly a foreigner in an irregular situation. In certain cases, the penalty is increased to five years of imprisonment and a fine of 150,000 euros,” explains the ministry’s document presenting the law. A problem which does not only affect the suburbs of Ile-de-France, and which consists of rooms of 20 square meters which are rented for 800 to 1000 euros, pavilions which are regularly repurchased then cut up to be re-rented room by room – when it is not beds that are rented.
This provision comes as the bill relating to the acceleration and simplification of the renovation of degraded housing and major development operations was adopted at first reading in the National Assembly on January 23, and returned to the Senate Economic Affairs Committee.