Pastor Advocates for Undocumented Moroccan Immigrant’s Legal Status in France

"In this Christmas season, it was December 27, and as a Christian, I could not remain insensitive to this distress. We therefore welcomed him to the shelter in order to help him regularize his situation, because this boy wants to integrate with us and work legally," says Pastor Donato Dalla Valle. "I have already made contacts with various CPAS who, unfortunately, do not know what to do. We live in a country that promotes the Charter of Human Rights, isn’t it time to apply all these principles?" laments the clergyman. Determined to support the young Moroccan, he launches an appeal to help him regularize his situation.

For the first 30 years of his life, the young Moroccan, an orphan of a father, managed with odd jobs to support his family, made up of six children. Becoming a painter and decorator at the age of 16, he still could not offer a better situation to his brothers and his mother.

At the age of 30, he decided to leave Morocco to improve the daily life of his family. "At first, I obtained a tourist visa. I was two years in Toulouse, then two years in Paris. One day, at the Gare du Nord in Paris, I was faced with a check. A station very frequented by undocumented immigrants and where the checks are very meticulous. I was arrested and held in custody for 24 hours, before going to a detention center for two days. I then went to court where I was released, but I had a month to leave French territory. My papers were still at the detention center and I admit I was afraid to go back there to get these papers, so I chose to flee... It was October 5, 2017. This date is forever etched in my memory. I stayed for a while with friends in Paris before leaving for Saint-Étienne in 2019 where I was housed by other Maghrebi friends. There, I did various jobs and then left for Lille before landing in Saint-Ghislain!" recalls the young Moroccan.