In France, three days after the assassination of a professor from Arras in the North, by a young man born in Russia, and followed by the intelligence services, President Macron asks to assess the level of terrorist threat. His Minister of the Interior sent a circular this Monday to all prefects, so that they expel any foreigner considered dangerous by the intelligence services.
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In France, more than 4,000 foreigners are registered with the FSPRT, the file of radicalized people. Gérald Darmanin expects the prefects to re-examine all these files, identify dangerous people and carry out their expulsion, whether they are in a regular or irregular situation.
But it is not that simple, according to Stéphane Maugendre, lawyer specializing in immigration law. “ We are still in a democratic country and there are avenues of appeal open. And there, the administrative court will see if the expulsion orders correspond to the letter of the law or not “, he explains.
Particular attention to files of Russian origin
However, the law protects, for example, sick people who cannot be treated in their country and takes into account the ties of a foreigner with French territory if he is the parent of a French minor child, the spouse of a person French, or in France for several decades.
The Minister of the Interior also asks for particular attention to files of Russian origin. He wants their systematic expulsion, but European justice limits this right. “ There is the possibility of sending back Russians, provided that their lives are not in danger. », explains Stéphane Maugendre.
Read alsoFrance: after the attack on Arras, the government is obliged to display its firmness
France has already been condemned twice by the European Court of Human Rights for having expelled or attempted to expel Chechen nationals, threatened with torture in Russia.
Immigration law: the Arras attack could reshuffle the cards
No one among the Republicans will admit it publicly, but the attack on Arras is the ideal opportunity to raise the stakes three weeks before the start of the examination of the immigration law in the Senate, reports Pierrick Bonno from the RFI political department. Since Friday, the party’s leaders have been taking turns on television sets to demand that the government review its copy, taking up Eric Ciotti’s proposal to deviate from European rules to facilitate expulsions in particular. Or by making administrative detention compulsory in the event of an obligation to leave the territory as requested by Xavier Bertrand.
This Tuesday, LR senators are meeting to refine their strategy. “ We will draft new amendments to address the blind spots in the bill », confides one of them who assures that the government is waiting for new proposals from the right. According to this senator from the Law Committee, the attack on Arras will bring everyone into agreement and bury Article 3 which plans to regularize undocumented workers in professions in shortage. “ Current events have reorganized priorities, wants to believe an LR. And the regularization of undocumented workers is clearly no longer one “.