A new law “will not increase the effectiveness of OQTFs”

• The government unveiled Wednesday, in

  Le Monde

  , the main lines of its immigration bill.

• This future law on asylum and immigration, planned for the first half of 2023, must introduce a series of measures to make the “obligations to leave French territory” (OQTF) more effective.

• 20 Minutes

  asked Serge Slama, professor of public law at the University of Grenoble-Alpes, his opinion on the main measures of this text.

  A text revealed a few weeks after the murder of Lola, 12, killed in mid-October by an Algerian national under the influence of an OQTF.

A news item, a law.

The rule is simple, old, and applies inexorably regardless of the government in power.

A few weeks after the murder of Lola, 12, killed in mid-October in Paris by an Algerian national targeted by an OQTF (obligation to leave French territory), the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, unveiled Wednesday in Le

outline of a new law on asylum and immigration.

It must be said that the government is the subject of strong criticism, particularly from the right and the extreme right, for the low rate of execution of the OQTFs.

France delivers about 120,000 per year but executes less than 10%.

The text, the 29th on immigration since 1980, therefore includes several measures aimed at improving the execution of these OQTFs, a subject that occupies public debate.

“We are now going to register all the OQTFs in the file of wanted persons, the RPF, announces Gérald Darmanin.

It is not a question of reestablishing the offense of illegal residence but of being able to ascertain that the person leaves.

As when, for example, she takes a plane, and so to count all the departures of foreigners.

“The OQTFs can already be registered with the RPF but this measure was, until then, “not systematic”, notes the entourage of the minister, contacted by

.

Better count OQTFs

“The minister is right to say that deportations are poorly counted”, explains to

Serge Slama, professor of public law at the University of Grenoble-Alpes.

“There are 120,000 OQTFs issued per year.

About 15,000 are executed ex officio.

But there are also so-called "voluntary" departures (8,500) with the help of the OFII (French Office for Immigration and Integration), foreigners who leave on their own.

Others are regularized.

We therefore do not really know the number of foreigners who,

stay irregularly on the territory.

»

Another measure: Gérald Darmanin argues that “nearly 50% of OQTFs” are the subject of “appeals which suspend them”.

The new bill therefore intends to “greatly simplify the procedures” in order to “implement the measures much more quickly”.

“This measure to simplify litigation is welcome,” remarks Serge Slama.

And the professor of public law noted that this measure “had also been proposed by the Council of State”.

“Today there are not twelve [as indicated by the Minister to

] but a dozen categories of appeal concerning all the removal measures.

The Council of State suggested returning to four, as in the past.

»

“A Communication Exercise”

On the other hand, the Minister of the Interior wants to put an end to the “public order reservations”, which “prevent the removal of people who arrived before 13 years old” in France, by letting the judges “decide” on their fate.

The government is therefore toughening its tone regarding deportation measures, but ensures that it reaches out to immigrant workers.

"We must now be mean to the mean and nice to the good", sums up Gérald Darmanin.

"We are also going to propose the automatic renewal of multi-year titles for those who pose no problem, who have no criminal record".

For Serge Slama, the minister “thus takes up Nicolas Sarkozy's speech on chosen or imposed immigration, with the idea that there are good guys and bad guys and that we can regularize the 'nice' migrant workers.

It is a communication exercise aimed at refocusing its law, which is generally aligned with the positions of the Republicans, even of the National Rally”.

“There are a lot of things that already exist in fact”

Gérald Darmanin, continues Serge Slama, will “need the right and the extreme right for the text to be adopted.

But he might also need to push some provisions through the left.

» 

The professor of public law concludes: “There are a lot of things that actually already exist, nothing very new.

The measures mentioned will further reduce the rights of foreigners and make migrant workers more precarious.

These are not good developments.

And, like the previous laws, this one will not significantly increase the effectiveness of OQTFs.

»

Policy

Gérald Darmanin wants to make "impossible" the life of foreigners subject to an obligation to leave the territory

Justice

Murder of Lola: What is an obligation to leave the territory and how does it work?

• Company

• Immigration

• Gerald Darmanin

• Ministry of Interior

• Migrants

• Illegal immigration