Migrants still many “firmness” and a little more “humanity” – Liberation

“Humanity and firmness” : the Interior Minister, Bernard Cazeneuve Wednesday tried to give some consistency to the “humanity” , abandoned since media coverage of migrant issues in France. Together with her colleague Housing, Sylvia Pinel, the tenant of the place Beauvau presented the Council of Ministers an emergency plan to respond to a “unprecedented humanitarian crisis” , illustrated by the tragedies . repetition in the Mediterranean

Two areas are discussed: better support for asylum seekers and strengthen the fight against illegal immigration. A delicate balancing game. This is both to make up the delay in French to comply with European regulations, but also to display the “firmness” and to give pledges to the extreme right in debate vitiated by the postures and approximations.

The words used in the Interior Ministry (“Reconnecting with the French tradition of asylum”, “Do not accept the street is a place Housing “) but are a form of awareness: the management of migrants in Calais and Paris is not suitable, even against-productive. The absurd chase led by the police for two weeks in the north of the capital is only the latest example.

Additional spaces in shelters

The services of Bernard Cazeneuve Sylvia Pinel and implement new ways to try to improve things. First step, the most emblematic: the creation of additional places in reception centers for asylum seekers (Cada), reserved for persons who filed a case. Today there are 25,000, while new claims since 2010 fluctuated between 50 000 and 65 000 per year. The Government is committed to build 4,000 extra places by the end of 2016. This, in addition to 4,200 already under way, should bear the capacity of the host park some 34 000 places. A doubling in ten years.

“We will have a large enough device to meet the needs” , will anyone believe Beauvau place, where there is also table on shortening instruction deadlines of asylum and strengthening of failed expulsions to free places. However, the use of emergency accommodation, less suitable or even more expensive when it is done in hotels, will continue to have progress.

The emergency accommodation, supposedly reserved for migrants transit (that is to say, who will not seek asylum in France) and those who have not yet initiated proceedings, will also be a sustained effort. 1,500 dedicated seats for migrants from Calais and Paris will emerge. “There will be a noticeable difference with the proposed solutions today: people will be followed, accompanied and directed to the most suitable devices, and remote territory” , says the Ministry of Housing. The recent crisis of migrants around the Chapel revealed the inadequacy of unlocked places for asylum seekers in centers for the homeless and other social hotels.

The proposal Hidalgo pushed

“The majority of the 1,500 seats will be open within three months, mainly in Ile-de-France” , say the service Sylvia Pinel. Public land and winter arrangements should be mobilized. No question, therefore, to create a center ad hoc, as proposed by the Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo. But what about support for migrants who would join these structures? The answer remains unclear. “We will need substantial resources for the agents of the French Office for Immigration and Integration (OFII) can do the job of diagnosis” , one recognizes Beauvau. Some negotiations are underway with Bercy, but no precise figures are available.

In Calais, a “House of Asylum” to inform migrants of their rights should sprout. The French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons (OFPRA), responsible for examining asylum applications could benefit from 10 to 20 recruitments in addition to the 55 planned in 2015 to speed up the processing of files. Finally, and this is new, the government will create childcare places dedicated to people accessing the refugee status. Until then, they remained in the street or Cada. 5,000 housing spaces “accompanied” will emerge by 2017, including “vacant units of social housing in relaxed area” . Understand: refugees will be distributed on French territory outside of major cities

House arrest for failed asylum

The third part of the government plan s. ‘seeks to reassure public opinion paralyzed by the fear of a “illegal influx” . This is “fight with determination against illegal immigration” . The Interior Ministry is pleased to have also conducted more than forced removals under Nicolas Sarkozy: + 13% in 2014 compared to 2012. “We have the results, we must increase efforts . “

Beauvau wants to bring up to date the assisted return (several hundred euros), ” misguided when they were provided to Bulgarian and Romanian nationals “, which could then return to France. “A minimum target of payment of 8,000 assisted returns to countries outside the EU, against 4,000 in 2014, is targeted.” The identity checks in Calais, in stations and on the roads, will multiply. Furthermore, the Foreign Ministry will “strengthen vis-à-vis the country of origin for work passes during deportation operations” .

Finally, the government wants to tackle the “problem” of rejected asylum by creating “specific accommodation places for the public” . Today, according to the Interior Ministry, only “10% to 20% of rejected” (which represent more than two thirds of asylum cases) actually leave France. “It’s too little” , slice Beauvau, who wants to develop the arrest (for a maximum of forty-five days) before expelling people.