Moroccan Man Who Came to France as an Infant Faces Deportation at 50

Fifty years in France, thirty years holding residence cards and his entire family settled in the country. None of that stopped the Vosges prefecture from ordering a Moroccan man born in March 1976 to leave. He had, however, won an initial legal battle: on April 3, the Nancy Administrative Court had overturned his deportation order. But the prefect appealed and, on September 29, obtained a stay of that ruling.

On Bladi.net : After 56 Years in France, This Moroccan Man Forces the Prefecture to Back Down

The story began in August 1976. The boy was just five months old when he arrived from Morocco under the family reunification program. He grew up in France and, from 1992, received residence cards that were regularly renewed for thirty years. His most recent permit expired in July 2022. He applied to renew it in February 2025.

On March 6, 2026, the prefecture refused to grant him leave to remain, ordered him to leave France immediately and barred him from returning for five years. Two weeks later, he was also placed under house arrest.

His personal circumstances are particularly precarious. Homeless and facing psychiatric difficulties, he is under enhanced legal guardianship and receives support from an association. His five siblings live in France. His parents also lived there until their deaths.

Six criminal convictions turn the case

The administrative court had taken these exceptional circumstances into account. In its April 3, 2026 ruling, it nevertheless acknowledged that the Moroccan man had been convicted six times, with several periods of imprisonment, and that his conduct posed a threat to public order.

The judges found, however, that the prefecture had made a manifest error of assessment in refusing him leave to remain. Despite the lack of proof of his presence in France in some years, they ruled that his arrival as a young child, thirty years holding residence cards and family ties justified overturning the entire removal procedure.

The Vosges prefect did not accept the decision. He appealed to the administrative court of appeal, arguing that the threat to public order had not been given sufficient consideration. In its September 29, 2026 ruling, the court provisionally sided with him: it found the argument sufficiently serious to warrant a stay of the initial ruling.

On Bladi.net : He has never lived in Morocco, yet France can deport him there

The Moroccan man has therefore lost the immediate benefit of having his OQTF overturned. The decision also suspends the €1,200 in legal costs the state was ordered to pay his lawyer. For now, however, the court has not issued a final ruling on the legality of the prefectural order.

The case must still be decided in the appeal on the merits. At 50, the man who arrived from Morocco before his first birthday still faces proceedings that could lead to his removal from the country where his five siblings live.