The bill, which will be presented to the Council of Ministers in the coming weeks before reaching first reading probably in March in the Senate, aims above all to promote the expulsion of foreigners who pose a threat to public order, in particular by a "structural" reform of asylum and litigation for foreigners.

Upstream, "it seemed important to us (...) to put forward a reception policy based on the principles of solidarity and fraternity", explained to the press Guillaume Gontard, the president of the environmental group which organized Friday in the Senate a symposium on the issues of "the reception and support of exiled people".

Whatever the reason for their arrival, "we must welcome them with dignity, unconditionally", he insisted, rejecting any form of angelism.

"We cannot ask people to fit in, to learn French (...) and at the same time welcome them as we welcome them", added Senator Guy Benarroche, who will be the leader of the group. on the bill.

"Bad feeling"

The situation of access to the rights of exiles is "grotesque" at "all levels of the chain", judged the senator from Bouches-du-Rhône.

“It is our duty to try to change the law because, at the very least, it should not be a hindrance to reception,” he added.

Especially since a "large majority" of exiles "will stay" and that "80% of OQTFs are not executed", he stressed, in reference to the "obligations to leave French territory" which the government wants to improve. efficiency.

The version of the text already transmitted to the Council of State leaves a "bad feeling" to Guy Benarroche: "When we start a law on asylum by wondering how we are going to do to bring people back to their country more quickly, it is a little weird," he says.

"There's going to be a lot of work to do trying to turn things around."

Concerns shared by Guillaume Gontard, who worries about the "arbitrations" decided between the majority and the Republicans.

"Here in the Senate, we do not have a National Rally group, but we clearly see a real drift of the right to the extremes", which is "particularly worrying about this text", he judges.

This gives "reasons to worry, but also to unite to face", estimated the deputy (PCF) Elsa Faucillon.

Reverse Logic

"Setting the terms of the debate on issues of reception and support, it reverses the current logic of rejection," she explained to an audience of elected officials and NGOs.

Even the government's flagship measure in favor of integration, the proposal to create a "short-term trades" residence permit in sectors with a labor shortage, is rejected by elected representatives on the left.

It even comes from a "deeply dehumanizing and utilitarian vision", tackled Elsa Faucillon.

“The person only comes to fulfill tasks useful to the nation but above all not to participate in it, contribute to it and benefit from it”, added the elected representative of Hauts-de-Seine.

PCF MP Elsa Faucillon at the National Assembly in Paris, March 22, 2020 © Ludovic MARIN / AFP/Archives

While waiting for the text to pass in the Senate, dominated by the right, then in the National Assembly, the reception of exiles is hostage to an "unhealthy political game", for his part regretted the EELV MEP Damien Carême. , leader of Anvita (National Association of Welcoming Towns and Territories) which co-organized the symposium.

"We are stigmatizing this population, which we are making responsible for all the ills. However, we have seen that in Europe we were able to welcome seven million Ukrainians in three months by giving them a right to housing, health, work," he continued.

"So we have the capacity to accommodate."

© 2023 AFP