Moroccan Man Faces Deportation After Years in France, Caught in Immigration Limbo

Ahmed Moutaie left Morocco after his father’s disability with whom he worked in the markets. A disability that led to the closure of the family business. He tries the Foreign Legion. Without success. He manages to reach Europe by crossing the sea. He divided his life between Besançon, at his sister’s home, and Italy, where he has been trying to find a job since 2015. He meets Florence, a divorced woman and mother of three children, in 2017. She hosts him in her apartment. The couple got married in 2020.

A few months later, a situation undermines the couple’s happiness: Ahmed Moutaie is subject to an obligation to leave French territory (OQTF) because he entered France without a visa. "I’m on vacation at the end of the week, we had planned to go to Morocco to get a visa, but the obligation to leave the territory (OQTF) fell on June 15, we will never get this visa. [...] We are just a file, behind the decisions of the administration no one imagines our life," the couple tells L’Est Républicain.

"At the town hall, they told us there would be an investigation." In March 2021, they had started the steps to regularize the situation. A job was promised to Ahmed in a construction company. But he runs into the refusal of the administration in January 2021. Reason given: "the family tie is not strong enough and he does not have a visa," explains Florence. A situation that annoys his wife. They have requested the services of a lawyer to appeal before the administrative court, but they will not prevail.

They think they could easily get this visa once in Morocco. Something complicated, because Morocco issues visas sparingly. "It sometimes takes two years to get a visa and with the OQTF it’s not guaranteed," laments Florence. Ahmed is taking this situation badly: "I don’t even dare to go out for a coffee, if they check my health pass they will check my papers and they will take me away. I live like a thief and I’ve never done anything wrong. I could work in construction, the company is waiting for me. But my life is on hold. I haven’t seen my family in 7 years, my mother is sick, if I go back to Morocco what happens?"