French Prefecture Under Fire for Surge in Controversial Deportation Orders

At the Indre-et-Loire prefecture, the number of OQTFs has increased considerably, going from an average of 420 per year between 2019 and 2022 to 632 in 2024. These figures were revealed by a young social worker working in a reception center in Tours to the French newspaper La nouvelle République. She explains that the OQTFs issued by the state services include measures to remove foreigners in an irregular situation, but also the refusals of residence permit applications. She notes "a notable deterioration in the processing conditions of these applications" at the level of this prefecture.

"The Indre-et-Loire prefecture is issuing more and more OQTFs, often on surprisingly vague or even incomprehensible grounds," she affirms. These grounds can lead to the loss of their right of residence in France as a result of their work and access to social assistance. To support her statements, this young social worker cites the example of a young person in vocational training who received an OQTF because he had a 6/20 in English, and another, because it was written on his report card that he had difficulties with French, even though he had a 14/20.

"Integrated people find themselves in an irregular situation, effectively creating new undocumented people where regularizations would have been not only legitimate, but also beneficial to society as a whole," she laments, believing that the policy of the Indre-et-Loire prefecture only "rekindles undeclared work, creates a permanent climate of administrative insecurity and generates precariousness."