Chalon-sur-Saone (AFP)

Night at the airport, wandering homes in hotels, Eating heart: unlike their predecessors, the last former Afghan employees of the French army repatriated to France are no longer welcomed and supervised by the state, and avoid the street only thanks to the solidarity of other Afghans, elected officials and associations.

"Without Hayatullah, we would have probably slept in the street". Sitting in his friend's living room couch, 28-year-old Jamil Baher never ceases to thank him for coming to pick him up at the airport in Roissy at the beginning of August when he arrived from Afghanistan with his wife, his three children 3 years, 2 years and 6 months, and two bags of clothes for any luggage.

They then took the train to Chalon-sur-Saone, where Hayatullah Haidary, 31, installed them in her small three-room apartment on the second floor of a small building in Lux, a quiet green suburb.

"I had to help him, we worked together in 2011 and 2012 on the French military base of Tora, me as a storekeeper, he who cleaned the restaurant of the commander," says Hayatullah.

After the French withdrawal of the country at the end of 2012, they reported threats and asked for a visa for Paris, as part of the 770 local civilian recruiting personnel (PCRL) employed by the French army from 2001. And the got seven years later, but not with the same rights.

"When I arrived at the end of January, I was greeted at the airport, found housing, given a ten-year residence permit, registered with RSA, Social Security and Pôle Emploi, assisted for the school of children ... Jamil is not entitled to all this, "says Hayatullah. Jamil nods, "I do not understand."

Hayatullah has benefited from the treatment of some 225 former Afghan PCRLs that Paris has selected and brought over in 2013, 2015 and 2018-2019, with more than 500 women and children.

Jamil had not been detained, and about thirty others lodged an appeal before the administrative court. During the proceedings, the French government reviewed his case and finally gave him a visa in July, says his lawyer Sophia Toloudi.

- Eating heart -

But those who have had their visa after litigation must pay them their ticket and, once in France, fend for themselves to get the right to asylum. Knowing that a part, like Jamil, does not speak French.

Ramin Ramesh, 31, landed him in Roissy on August 13 with his three children and his pregnant wife of more than six months. After a few adventures, the family is now in Metz, in a room of a home for migrants found by a local association.

"I find myself without anything, lodged with undocumented refugees," says Ramesh. "It's scandalous, they are allowed to come and then they apply a right of second-class asylum," says Toloudi.

Abdul Hai Sattary, 62, including 5 as an English-speaking interpreter of the French army, arrived on July 24 in Roissy, with his two children and his wife, disabled and wheelchair.

Not knowing where to go, they spent the night in the airport. Finally welcomed a few days near Nantes by another ex-Afghan interpreter, they are now housed in a hotel by a municipality.

"We go to the Restos du coeur, where we are given milk, cans of tuna, bread and cakes, and nothing else, because we can not cook at the hotel," says Sattary, disappointed.

For the Association of Afghan Interpreters of the French Army, France has restricted aid to try to discourage other candidates. In vain, according to its vice-president Caroline Decroix, because no matter what awaits them on arrival, the Afghans, "in danger at home", "want to be protected, that's all".

Questioned by AFP, the ministries concerned (Foreign Affairs, Armed Forces, Interior) avoid speaking on the subject. "This is a sensitive and complicated file, there is no standard answer, each case is unique," notes a government source.

- Positive balance -

Some 150 ex-Afghan PCRLs reported to be threatened and demanding a visa, but for the administration, "it is difficult to link these threats to their position in the French army" at least seven years ago , argues a source close to the file.

"The threats are still numerous today," says Quentin Muller, who published this year with Brice Andlauer a book on the subject, "Tarjuman, investigation of a French betrayal" (Bayard).

On August 14, thanks to a mobilization initiated by socialist Senator Jerome Durain, Jamil and his family invested a three-room apartment in Blanzy, about thirty kilometers from Lux, where everything was ready to welcome them, from bedding to biscuits and canned.

Local elected officials who spend every day to assist Jamil, a little helpless without Hayatullah, hoping to quickly find a home in Chalon, closer to other Afghans.

"There is an injustice, the state must align the rights of the family of Jamil Baher with those obtained by other Afghans, they must be welcomed in good conditions," said Senator Durain.

The Prefect Jean-Jacques Brot, who coordinated for the government the reception of the refugees between 2015 and 2017, draws a positive assessment of the arrival of the ex-Afghan PCRL: "There were sometimes difficulties, but between national services and local elected officials, they have been settled. " If some people are struggling to find a job, there are many who take training.

In his almost empty living room, Hayatullah says he is "very happy" with this "new life" far from Kabul "where you never know if you will come back alive at night". At his side, his son Irfan, a six-year-old blonde, sings a tube of Kenji Girac. The little boy returns every day from school with new French words. His father smiled: "Soon it will be him, our translator!"

© 2019 AFP