France: Deportations up
01 July 1994
Deportations of non-French nationals have increased markedly in France since last year's new immigration laws came in. Known as the "Pasqua Laws" after the Interior minister Charles Pasqua they restricted nationality rights and were, in his words, aimed at "zero immigration". Since February this year, the Police de l'Aire et des Frontires (a component of the new immigration police unit DICILEC) has been acting as an agency for deportations, with the Office for Removal. Most of those deported have been from the North African magreb countries, such as Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia, but Turks and black Africans have also been expelled.
In the three months up to mid-June, 2,666 people have been deported back to their country of origin, a 23% increase on the same period last year. The Interior Ministry put out a statement saying that as a result of the "new system" they had managed to reduce failed deportations by 80%.
The government has stopped chartering special flights for deportations and is now using regular Air France flights instead. It is also negotiating with foreign airlines to handle deportations from provincial airports, and has stressed the need to "handle deportees in a decent manner to avoid incidents with other passengers". The police at the Office for Removal have been directed to order deportees to their local prefecture for "regularisation of papers", and put them on a flight the same evening. Many of those deported in this manner are married to French nationals or have other familial ties in France.
Entry has also become increasingly difficult for non-French nationals. In 1993, 46,892 people were stopped at the borders and turned away, with only 7% of these being given the right of appeal. Between 1 January and 30 April this year the police refused admission to 21,132 people, an increase of 8.75% over the same period in 1993. A campaign has now been mounted in France in support of foreign teachers who were recruited to come and work in the country because of shortages of qualified teachers during the 1980s. Thousands of such teachers were stripped of their teaching licences in June and being without work permits are now threatened with deportation.
Reflex, Paris.