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Baker Stéphane Ravacley: "I won't stop until I've achieved something."
Photo:
SEBASTIEN BOZON / AFP
In France, an apprentice from Guinea is threatened with deportation.
His boss, the baker Stéphane Ravacley, has therefore gone on a hunger strike - and now has prominent supporters.
In an open letter to President Emmanuel Macron, more than 40 signatories stood up for the hunger strike baker, including popular actors such as Omar Sy (“Pretty Best Friends”) and Oscar winner Marion Cotillard (“La vie en rose”).
"Mr President, support the baker from Besançon who is on hunger strike" is the title of the appeal to Macron, which was published in the current issue of the magazine "L'Obs".
"You cannot be hard-hearted towards a French citizen who is endangering his or her health in order to defend humanistic principles such as freedom, equality and brotherhood."
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Baker Ravacley went on hunger strike a week ago to prevent his apprentice Laye Fodé Traoré from being deported.
"I won't stop until I've achieved something," said the 50-year-old at the beginning of the protest.
The 18-year-old Laye Fodé Traoré, who has been training with him since September 2019, is a "good boy".
Traoré came to France as an unaccompanied minor refugee, since he is now of legal age, according to the authorities, he should return to his West African homeland.
50-year-old "in bad shape"
Ravacley says he has not consumed any food since midnight on Sunday.
"My doctor told me that I was in bad shape," said the master baker, who claims to have suffered three pulmonary embolisms in the past few years.
"But I do not care."
Traoré, in turn, appealed to the administrative court to take action against his deportation notice and obtain a residence permit.
The mayoress of Besançon, Anne Vignot, stood up for him.
In a letter to Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, she stated that a deportation "of this future baker is incomprehensible."
Ravacley also started a petition for his trainee.
All protests have so far been unsuccessful: Despite numerous expressions of solidarity from politics and society, the teenager is to be deported, as can be read in the appeal of the celebrities.
In addition to actors and singers, numerous politicians and union boss Laurent Berger also signed the appeal.
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apr / AFP