The murder of little Lola sent shockwaves through public opinion, forcing the government, initially cautious, to react. The minister of the interior Gérald Darmanin once again promised to be firm and to tighten up his expulsion policy, but his declarations are treated with scepticism.
The discovery of the profile of Lola’s killer—an Algerian woman who had been under an obligation to leave the country for three years—once again raises the question of the responsibility of the interior ministry’s policy for expelling illegal immigrants on French soil. In the days following the murder, several cases followed one another, all involving illegal immigrants subject to an ‘OQTF’ (Obligation de Quitter le Territoire Français, or obligation to leave French territory) that had not followed the law.
While a new bill on immigration is being prepared, the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin assured on Thursday, October 27th, the government’s desire to tighten the rules on the obligation to leave French territory. He thus explained on France Inter: “We have a job to do to make life impossible for OQTFs in France.” The toughening seems the obvious choice, since, as the minister added, “today someone who is subject to an OQTF can still benefit from social housing.”
The rate of effective enforcement of OQTFs is currently extremely low. In 2021, the actual rate of application of OQTFs was only 5.7%—a high amount, although less than the 10% Éric Zemmour tweeted a few days ago.
According to the Minister of the Interior, this is due to “a law that is too complex to expel an illegal alien, with up to twelve administrative and judicial appeals.” More than half of the OQTFs issued are blocked by administrative appeals. The forthcoming bill proposes to reduce the number of administrative appeals and plans to abolish the double-sentencing system, which obliges a foreigner, when convicted, to serve his or her sentence on French soil before being deported.
The new ‘asylum and immigration’ law is to be presented to parliamentarians in the first half of 2023. The government would like to achieve “almost 100% execution.” The Observatory of Immigration and Delinquency reported in July that although the number of illegal immigrants continues to increase, removal measures are less and less applied. Statistically, an illegal immigrant is more likely to be regularised than to be removed. The leap to be made is therefore immense and fuels the scepticism of the opposition.
This is not the first time that the government, including Emmanuel Macron’s first term, has made this type of promise and never followed up.
As Marine Le Pen reminds the French audience, “this promise has already been made ten times. Three months ago, by the same Gérald Darmanin in an interview with Le Monde. Five years ago, by Emmanuel Macron.”
For the leader of the RN group in the Assembly, confidence in the government’s alleged firmness cannot therefore be expected. For Éric Ciotti, candidate for the presidency of Les Républicains, the French would have to be “idiots” to believe the law would be followed. Ciotti criticised the lack of political will and recalled that today only €170 million of the Ministry of the Interior’s immigration budget is earmarked for facilitating expulsions.
French Government Not to Be Trusted on Immigration
The murder of little Lola sent shockwaves through public opinion, forcing the government, initially cautious, to react. The minister of the interior Gérald Darmanin once again promised to be firm and to tighten up his expulsion policy, but his declarations are treated with scepticism.
The discovery of the profile of Lola’s killer—an Algerian woman who had been under an obligation to leave the country for three years—once again raises the question of the responsibility of the interior ministry’s policy for expelling illegal immigrants on French soil. In the days following the murder, several cases followed one another, all involving illegal immigrants subject to an ‘OQTF’ (Obligation de Quitter le Territoire Français, or obligation to leave French territory) that had not followed the law.
While a new bill on immigration is being prepared, the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin assured on Thursday, October 27th, the government’s desire to tighten the rules on the obligation to leave French territory. He thus explained on France Inter: “We have a job to do to make life impossible for OQTFs in France.” The toughening seems the obvious choice, since, as the minister added, “today someone who is subject to an OQTF can still benefit from social housing.”
The rate of effective enforcement of OQTFs is currently extremely low. In 2021, the actual rate of application of OQTFs was only 5.7%—a high amount, although less than the 10% Éric Zemmour tweeted a few days ago.
According to the Minister of the Interior, this is due to “a law that is too complex to expel an illegal alien, with up to twelve administrative and judicial appeals.” More than half of the OQTFs issued are blocked by administrative appeals. The forthcoming bill proposes to reduce the number of administrative appeals and plans to abolish the double-sentencing system, which obliges a foreigner, when convicted, to serve his or her sentence on French soil before being deported.
The new ‘asylum and immigration’ law is to be presented to parliamentarians in the first half of 2023. The government would like to achieve “almost 100% execution.” The Observatory of Immigration and Delinquency reported in July that although the number of illegal immigrants continues to increase, removal measures are less and less applied. Statistically, an illegal immigrant is more likely to be regularised than to be removed. The leap to be made is therefore immense and fuels the scepticism of the opposition.
This is not the first time that the government, including Emmanuel Macron’s first term, has made this type of promise and never followed up.
As Marine Le Pen reminds the French audience, “this promise has already been made ten times. Three months ago, by the same Gérald Darmanin in an interview with Le Monde. Five years ago, by Emmanuel Macron.”
For the leader of the RN group in the Assembly, confidence in the government’s alleged firmness cannot therefore be expected. For Éric Ciotti, candidate for the presidency of Les Républicains, the French would have to be “idiots” to believe the law would be followed. Ciotti criticised the lack of political will and recalled that today only €170 million of the Ministry of the Interior’s immigration budget is earmarked for facilitating expulsions.
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