About 300 migrants and their supporters gathered Thursday before the administrative court of Paris to denounce the difficulties of access to the appointments in the prefecture to file their applications for residence permits, a "
dead end
" which, according to them, condemns them to live in an irregular situation.
Read also: Half of the undocumented delivery men in Frichti on the way to regularization
Cap, down jacket, Seydou is one of them.
It has been "
over a year
" since this 35-year-old Ivorian, who has been working at the "
plunge
" for five years, has been trying to open the doors of his prefecture online.
In vain.
“
I log in all the time, from the computer, from the tablet, from my phone.
But impossible,
”he says, showing AFP the application on which he is trying his luck, in front of the administrative court of Paris, where he holds a banner“
Right to a meeting in the prefecture for all
” .
So far, Seydou has always refused to pay for an appointment, which costs 600 euros on the black market, he says: “
too expensive.
"
After a similar action on December 10 before administrative courts in Ile-de-France, around a hundred summary proceedings were filed Thursday afternoon at the end of the demonstration, which mainly brought together people from Africa French speaking.
"
By gradually dematerializing the appointment taking, without providing any other possibility of access to the counters, the prefectures have almost closed the doors of exceptional admission to stay, the only way of access to a normal life
", denounced in a press release some thirty associations and unions, including the League of Human Rights or the CGT.
Read also: Migrants occupy a Parisian school to demand their shelter
"
Under cover of dematerialization, very few appointments are issued
", added to AFP Clémence Lormier, an official of Cimade.
Before, she added, "
we saw long queues in front of the prefectures, now there are always so many people, except that they have been invisible
".
"
But when we know that some residence permits expire after one year, or that young people who become adults have until their 19th birthday to apply for a residence permit, we see that there are consequences. very heavy.
In the absence of an appointment, they find themselves in an irregular situation.
"For Me Elena de Guerould, of the French Lawyers' Union," the "
absence of an alternative is illegal
".
“
Dematerialization must be a right and not an obligation,
” she believes.
Read also: The Schiappa plan for migrants is controversial
The General Directorate of Foreigners in France, it believes that the complainants are "
confusing
" between dematerialization and online appointments.
“
For the moment, only foreign students are concerned by dematerialization, and they no longer need an appointment to submit their applications.
This is the goal of the gradual dematerialization of all titles by the end of 2022: no longer having to make an appointment at the prefecture to submit their request.
"
Hadjira, a 33-year-old Algerian, asks for nothing more than simplification.
"
I've been trying to make an appointment
for
6 months
", explains this mother of three children born in France.
“
For two months, I've been taking screenshots of all my attempts: I try every morning, afternoon or evening.
But there is never a date!
"
