EXCLUSIVE
This is an exclusive and informative interview given by Emmanuel Macron to Europe 1 from New York. The head of state took advantage of the climate summit to confide on a highly sensitive issue: immigration. In the course of the interview, Emmanuel Macron drew up the current problems and presented some ways to improve the situation, whether on the right of asylum, State medical aid or climate refugees. Find below all of this interview.
"Today, we are both ineffective and inhumane, in Europe as in France"
"I think it would be a mistake to say that the migration issue is a taboo issue or that it can only be asked when there are crises." Our country is a country of migrations, of all times. to make people believe that today we are overwhelmed by this phenomenon or that France is a country that has never been a country partly made up of immigration, that is false. is that we have lived for several years with an increase in migration: we had the big migrations related to the Syrian crisis in 2015, we have today more and more migrations coming from Africa, and we will more and more live with migrations.
France can not welcome everyone if it wants to welcome well. Faced with this, we must organize because France can not welcome everyone if she wants to welcome well. This is the challenge we set for ourselves, it was the commitment I made in Orléans in July 2017 and we did not manage to keep it. What has happened since the presidential election? There has been a huge increase in the number of asylum seekers. This is linked to a very complicated phenomenon: there is not enough cooperation in Europe and we have to look at the reality of this migratory phenomenon and make decisions.
>> ANALYSIS - But why does Emmanuel Macron talk so much about immigration?
At European level, we must work and be more efficient in order to have common asylum rules. Today, we are both ineffective and inhumane in Europe as in France. We need to accelerate the recasting of the Schengen and Dublin rules, that is to say have common asylum rules, be more efficient to send back to their country, from the beginning, those who are not destined to stay in Europe. We are not efficient enough, the procedures too long. When someone in Europe stays for years, you can not take him home again, he has a normal life. At the European level, we must work and be more efficient in order to have common asylum rules, a common return policy. "
"To be able to welcome everyone with dignity, we must not be too attractive a country"
I want us to continue to welcome everyone with dignity. To be able to welcome everyone with dignity, one must not be too attractive a country, I tell you very frankly. We must give asylum to those who need our protection as quickly as possible and we must be more efficient, more humane and more efficient within six months. We must then integrate much more effectively those who are entitled to asylum, with French courses and a stronger employment policy.
People who are not destined to remain in the territory should be driven much more effectively. We must treat and protect all those who are on our territory, for themselves and for us. But here too, do it rightly keep it and make sense, and analyze if there are any excesses that exist, and I believe they exist in certain categories. Secondly, people who do not have to remain in the country should be deported much more effectively because they entered it illegally and sometimes applied for asylum and were not entitled to it. If we can do that, I can tell you that we will be a country that lives up to its values, that welcomes the part of the population that it can accommodate, and who will do well, who will integrate well, which is an economic opportunity but which will not be a country where sometimes we add the misery to misery
I assume to speak calmly of immigration. It's a complicated debate, the answer is not univocal. There are several pillars: our African policy, our development policy, our fight against trafficking, our European policy, our French policy with all its aspects. If we can not do all this, we will be hostage to simplistic debates. I do not want simplistic debates for our country. I believe in the truth at the same time on migration policy too. I'll talk calmly about immigration. "
"It would be ridiculous to remove the MEA, but you have to evaluate it"
"In France, we have to look at things: why are there fewer migrants in Europe in the past two years and there is an increase in asylum demand in France? with whom we have permanent relations and who are not countries at war, there are probably excesses, in any case a circumvention of the asylum application procedure.Onside that, when we see many nationals from countries with whom we have relations, we opened visas.
France can not continue in this situation. We have an explosion of entries that are related to the health topic, with people who come to seek treatment in France. These are phenomena that must be looked at and answered. France can not continue in this situation. We must welcome and protect as quickly as possible women and men who are entitled to asylum. Then we have to harmonize our rules with our neighbors.
Does State Medical Aid have a basket of care that matches all that is needed? We can not have rules on certain subjects that are totally unrelated to the reality of our neighbors. We must continue to treat all those in our country. I heard in the debates some who said that we should eliminate State Medical Aid. It would be ridiculous! But does State Medical Aid have a basket of care that is all that is needed? That must be evaluated. I do not have the answer, but we have the right to have a real debate, because otherwise, it is a debate where we must not touch anything and we see excesses and we should delete everything. I do not want this debate for our country. We need a debate to look at what we are doing in relation to our neighbor, and is it 100% reimbursed for everything that needs to be repaid and is there not sometimes, a little, excesses. "