Protests Planned as France Tightens Immigration Policies

At the call of many organizations, including the Syndicat de la magistrature, the CGT (Confédération générale du travail), the Ligue des droits de l’homme and the Cimade, demonstrations to "denounce the migration policy in force, particularly towards undocumented migrants" are planned on Wednesday, December 18 in France.

Since the arrival of Bruno Retailleau at the Ministry of the Interior, the project undertaken by Gérald Darmanin, Minister of the Interior between 2020 and 2024, that of regularizing undocumented workers in so-called "shortage" occupations, is suffering. Furthermore, Retailleau had decided to reduce the number of regularizations and replace the circular signed in 2012 by Manuel Valls, then Prime Minister, and providing for the regularization of 30,000 people per year.

While the reform of the circular had not yet been carried out after the fall of the Barnier government on December 4th, "the prefectures did not wait for a new text and hastened to implement the tightening envisaged by Bruno Retailleau," observes Le Monde, citing the case of the Paris police prefecture, the one that regularizes the most in France. In this prefecture, the meetings that allowed unions to file regularization files have not been held since the start of the school year.

The CGT used to examine about thirty files per month, but has had no audience since November, says a union member. "Asking for regularization is going to become impossible. Not only will this create a high level of resentment, but it will close the door to shedding light on illegal situations, even to cases of human trafficking, which we will no longer be able to alert," laments a CGT-Paris activist.

While regularizations are de facto frozen pending the appointment of a new Minister of the Interior, OQTF (orders to leave French territory) are multiplying. "With the new immigration law, the prefectures can reject residence permit applications for the sole reason that the person has already had an OQTF, even an old one, or because they have used false documents. This existed before, but it was on the margins," explains another CGT member. Additional problems for undocumented immigrant workers in France.