The question raised by Air France has finally been decided.
Airlines and shipping companies will continue to pay heavy fines if they refuse to take illegal aliens on board for deportation, the Constitutional Council confirmed on Friday.
The "Sages" were seized of a priority question of constitutionality introduced by Air France in the summer.
After being imposed two fines of 15,000 and 20,000 euros in 2017 "for having failed in its obligation to reroute" foreign nationals, the French airline had turned to justice to contest the basis of two articles of the Code of entry and stay of foreigners and the right of asylum (Ceseda).
Read alsoAssistance to migrants: what is the “offense of solidarity”?
The latter stipulates that this type of company is liable to a maximum fine of 30,000 euros if it refuses such an eviction: under the terms of the law, it is indeed "required to bring back without delay", at the request of the authorities. , the foreigner to whom the stay is refused "at the point where he has started to use the means of transport".
To Air France, which judged in substance that such an obligation forced it, in fact, to acquire private escort companies to ensure safety on board, the Constitutional Council replied on Friday that "the contested provisions have neither the object and effect of imposing on these companies an obligation to monitor the person to be redirected or to exert a constraint on him, such measures falling solely within the competence of the police authorities ”.
Texts deemed "consistent with the Constitution"
"They do not deprive either the captain of his faculty to disembark a person presenting a danger to the safety, health, salubrity or good order of the aircraft", underlined the "Sages", declaring the texts contentious "in accordance with the Constitution".
At the end of 2019, the Constitutional Council had already declared compliant another section of the Ceseda which made it possible to impose fines on these same carriers, if the companies boarded on board, bound for France, foreign nationals whose travel documents no. were not in good standing or fraudulent.
In short, if the company had not properly checked these documents (for example a visa) at the airport of departure.