The phone rang early, around 7 a.m. that morning. So Ingrid Berthet understood "right away". At the other end of the line, her fiancé is sitting in the back of a police vehicle. "That's it," he told her. They take me to the airport. "
Undocumented since 2016, Aly Diawara was deported to Guinea on Wednesday January 15. Ingrid Berthet, 36, has been delivering on her regrets, her six-month pregnancy and her dreams of disenchanted love for seven days.
A time suspected of white marriage, the couple may have paid for the slowness of authorities who nevertheless ended up giving the green light to their union. Too late: an obligation to leave French territory had been passed in the meantime against the future father.
"France condemns me to give birth alone," blows Ingrid Berthet. And condemns my son to start his life without his dad. The broken voice, "psychologically touched" and "shocked" by this hasty departure, she traces the thread of an administrative imbroglio that was knotted almost a year earlier.
"I have the right to love whoever I want"
In March, Ingrid Berthet came to look for a marriage file at the town hall of her commune, Nazelles-Négron, in Indre-et-Loire. She wants to marry Aly Diawara, a Guinean of almost 15 years her youngest son met the previous spring in a tavern in Tours.
The latter was denied his right to asylum but does not despair. "I have always known his administrative situation," she insists. But that's how it is ... As a Frenchwoman, I have the right to love and marry whoever I want. "
Francophone, Aly Diawara is invested in local life. Within the soccer club, where he acts as a coach for the senior team, but also in an association helping migrants. At home, he takes care of Ingrid's three children, born of a first union.
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On May 9, the 30-year-old returns to the town hall with her complete file under her arm. But the reception agent refused it: a post-it expressly forbade him to accept any deposit from this couple.
"Suspected white wedding"
Raised by what she interprets as a sign of mistrust, the future bride decides to carry out her formalities in Fondettes, not far from there, where her parents live. They also know their city council well. The file is validated. A date is set for June 15.
Forty-eight hours before the big day, the ceremony, to which the couple awaits 80 guests, is postponed. "The civil service explained to me that an alert for suspicion of white marriage had been issued by my town hall," fulminates the fiancee. A social survey must be carried out.
Diligent by the parquet of Indre-et-Loire, this one must give results within two months. At least in theory. Because days pass and the prosecutor's return is long overdue. Ingrid Berthet becomes pregnant. In October, Aly Diawara receives a new obligation to leave the territory. "The prefecture wanted to set an example," accuses his partner.
At the end of November, the young man who, on the advice of associations, refused to comply with the obligations linked to his house arrest, was placed in the administrative detention center of Rennes (Ille-et-Vilaine). The results of the prosecution's investigation fall less than three weeks later.
Against the watch
"The return of the file [...] does not establish the absence initially suspected of a real matrimonial intention, it is written in particular. To date, there is therefore no obstacle preventing the filing of a new marriage dossier. "
Reinforced in her cause, Ingrid Berthet is fighting against the clock. To save her couple, she mediates her cause. An online petition collects more than 35,000 signatures. At least two parliamentarians from the majority take sides in his favor: Senator Richard Yung and MP Daniel Labaronne, alerted by his own daughter, invested in the pro-migrant community.
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"I thought that the social investigation would unblock the situation," confirms the latter. I asked the Minister of the Interior to reconsider the situation. A letter would have been transmitted to Christophe Castaner in hands, Tuesday, January 14, on the sidelines of questions to the government. It will remain unanswered. The next day, Aly Diawara is deported to Conakry.
Contacted to justify their decision, neither the prefecture of Indre-et-Loire nor the Ministry of the Interior were available immediately. The mayor of Nazelles-Négron, she denies having refused to marry the couple.
Bad faith
"I just wanted to schedule an interview with the future spouses, as the law requires me in these circumstances, swears the councilor Richard Chatellier. This is what I reminded the town hall of Fondettes and which may have led it to postpone the ceremony in turn. But a report , no, I never issued one. "
As proof, the mayor ensures that he sent two requests to the Elysée Palace in early January to request a "watchful eye" on the couple's situation. "Bad faith! retorts Ingrid Berthet. No one had contacted me until the first articles appeared… ”
To hope to see the father of her child return to France, Ingrid Berthet will no doubt have to go herself to Guinea, a country placed in "enhanced vigilance" by the Quai d'Orsay, after giving birth.
If they get married on the spot, the couple can try to play the family reunification in their favor. But that surely isn't for now. Subject to a ban on returning to French territory, Aly Diawara does not have the right to set foot in France for at least two years. So much time he will have to spend away from his little family.
