France Denies Asylum to Moroccan YouTubers with UN Refugee Status

The couple obtained refugee status with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in China in 2021. They then arrived in France "after the attack on their home by a Moroccan agent," explains their lawyer, Olfa Ouled, during a press conference held on May 29 in Paris. The decision to refuse asylum by France would have been made on November 4, 2021, after Paris received a report from the Directorate General of Information Systems Security (DGSSI) under the Moroccan Ministry of National Defense, reports El Español.

After two years in an irregular situation in France, the two YouTubers began a hunger strike on Friday. "We will not stop until we are safe and our rights as refugees are respected," they said in a statement. The couple is asking competent organizations and democratic states "to resettle in a safe country that respects [their] rights as political refugees, [their] dignity as a person and [their] freedom of expression."

This decision by the French institutions is "discriminatory" and violates Article R-531-7 governing the right to asylum, asserts in a statement dated April 18, the Association for the Defense of Human Rights in Morocco (ASDHOM), based in Paris. Its president, Said Soughty, present at Friday’s press conference, called on the French authorities to act "independently" and to ensure "the protection of their physical and moral integrity in accordance with international conventions protecting the right to life and the right to asylum".

Adnane and Dounia designate the French authorities as "accomplices" of the Moroccan authorities. "Instead of applying the law and international law, France prefers to preserve its bilateral relations with Morocco in the most unworthy way possible," they claim. "We don’t have the right to have a lawyer, complaints are rejected within 24 hours, we don’t have the material conditions of accommodation... and we don’t have the right to work," denounces Dounia, stressing that the hunger strike is "the last alternative" to fight against the "unbearable oppression" of the French authorities.