French Minister Halts Deportation of Girl at Risk of FGM in Ivory Coast

It was on his Twitter account that Christophe Castaner, Minister of the Interior, announced the news on Saturday. After studying the file, he asked that the measure to transfer Samira to Italy on November 12th not be "executed", reports Le Parisien.

However, "Samira and her father’s right of residence will be re-examined, given their particular family situation," the Minister said. Little Samira, a student in Seine-et-Marne, had fled her country, Côte d’Ivoire, to escape female genital mutilation.

This news, although good, does not reassure Raphaël Glucksmann, the initiator of a petition that has collected more than 150,000 signatures. He called on President Emmanuel Macron for help.

For Pierre-Natnaël Bussière, the parliamentary assistant to the MEP, the deportation procedure has been suspended in this tweet but "there is no indication of the nature of the administrative document that will be granted to them". Based on this observation, "we continue the mobilization because we want them to have asylum in France or a residence permit," he wished.

"She is a survivor of the rescue operations in the Mediterranean. During the crossing, she lost her mother," Raphaël Glucksmann had written in his petition.