A Besançon baker has been on hunger strike since last Sunday to protest the expulsion of his Guinean apprentice.

This young migrant, who entered the territory illegally, is subject to an obligation to leave French territory and an expulsion.  

He hasn't swallowed anything since last Sunday.

Stéphane Ravacley, a baker from the Rivotte district of Besançon has been on hunger strike for three days to keep his Guinean apprentice, Laye Fodé Traore, a young adult subject to an obligation to leave French territory (OQTF) and threatened with expulsion.

A radical reaction to say the least which reflects a lack of understanding on the part of the baker: before his majority, the young man was supported by the state.

But since he is of age, the state has asked him to leave the country.

"This kid, he speaks better French than me!"

Having left Guinea and arrived in France as an isolated minor after having passed through Mali, Libya and having crossed the Mediterranean to reach Italy, before joining France, Laye Fodé Traore now has the obligation to leave the territory.

A real injustice for Stéphane Ravacley, who has taken the young man under his wing for over a year.

"He is a kid who works well. He arrives from 3 am and leaves around 7:30 am. He has been working with me for a year and a half. He is quiet. He works and learns, he has Already understood the essentials of the job. This kid, he speaks better French than me! ", he tells the

Parisian

.

"There is a place for him in my bakery", insists the baker, who planned to take him as a worker at the end of his training.

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"We are waiting for Mr. Darmanin to assume his responsibilities vis-à-vis a humanist policy"

Faced with the determination of the baker, and to help him in his approach, the EELV mayor of Besançon, Anne Vignot, wrote Tuesday to the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, to ask him to oppose this expulsion and to regularize the situation of Laye Fodé Traoré ".

"We wait for Mr. Darmanin to assume his responsibilities vis-à-vis a humanist policy," explains the city councilor.

"This person is integrated, she has been trained, she has accepted all the rules of our Republic. We cannot consider that we would have a policy of welcoming minors which gives them training, and when they are 18 years, we tell them 'come home'! "

"It's inhuman, it's unbearable", insists Anne Vignot at the microphone of Europe 1. 

An appeal to the administrative tribunal

For his part, the young Guinean seized the administrative court of Besançon on the merits to challenge the OQTF and the refusal to grant a residence permit from the prefecture of Haute-Saône.

His appeal will be considered on January 26.

He had been dismissed from a first summary appeal in December.

"We lose 70% of young people after the CAP because they no longer want, or because the bosses do not take good care of them", deplores the baker of bisontin, who struggles like many artisans to find apprentices.

"So why do we not accept these kids who are starving in their country and want to work with us? They are not taking the place of the French," he protested. 

In addition to his hunger strike, Stéphane Ravacley has launched an internet petition.

The latter has collected nearly 133,900 signatures (Wednesday at 1 p.m.) and more than 100,000 "likes" on Instagram since the MEP Raphaël Glucksmann (Place Publique) relayed it.