Senators finished examining the “immigration” bill and more than 600 amendments after a week of debate on Friday, November 10. The Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, says he is “satisfied” that the text includes “all the government’s measures” and continues to praise the “balance” of the project despite the numerous toughening measures approved, such as the removal of the State medical aid (AME) or the questioning of land law.
Before the solemn vote on the bill on Tuesday, and before its examination by the National Assembly in December, the Senate validated, on Friday, the so-called “simplification” measures of asylum application procedures and litigation in immigration law. foreigners. These provisions aim to decide more quickly who has the right to stay in the territory and who must leave. “The main difficulty is not that France is lax,” Mr. Darmanin explained to the Senate, “it is that we are taking too long either to say yes or to say no. » For the minister, the slowness of the procedures means that people who are not intended to stay on the territory “unfortunately have time (…) to get married, to have children on French soil and we return to difficulties application of deportations at the borders”.
In terms of asylum, the objective is that a request can be processed in six months, compared to “well over a year” today, underlines the minister. To this end, the bill profoundly reforms the organization of the National Court of Asylum (CNDA). This administrative jurisdiction examines the appeals of asylum seekers who have been rejected before the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons (Ofpra). It issued more than 67,000 decisions in 2022, making it the largest administrative court in the country. The government wishes to deconcentrate the CNDA by creating territorial chambers and making the single judge the principle for ruling on appeals, whereas today it is a collegial formation of three judges which prevails.
“A hijacking” of the asylum
“Collegiality is a guarantee of impartiality,” believes lawyer Oumayma Selmi, member of the Law Office for the Defense of Foreigners’ Rights. Judging quickly does not mean judging better. » The end of collegiality will notably have the consequence of depriving the court of the presence of an assessor judge appointed by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), warned the senator Europe-Ecologie-Les Verts des Bouches-du-Rhône Guy Benarroche. “It’s depriving oneself of decisive expertise,” he declared during the session. “It’s not the revolution,” Mr. Darmanin assured him in return, who considers that “asylum is experiencing a misuse.”