"
We've tried everything, what more can we do?
At a time when the last American troops are leaving Afghanistan, the former employees of the French army - who left in 2014 - cooks, interpreters, waiters and drivers already repatriated to France are alarmed for their comrades back home.
"
They are in danger of death, but nobody wants to believe it
", alarms Adel Abdul Raziq, president of the Association of the former auxiliaries of the French army, which brings together nearly 500 "
civil personnel of local recruitment
" ( PCRL) managed to reach French soil.
Read also: The Taliban are suffocating Afghan society more and more every day
Of the 800 or so Afghans employed by French troops between 2001 and 2014, 270 were able to obtain the precious visa for France, thanks to the support of the association. But for two years, about sixty cases have remained at a standstill. Exhausted by years of political pressure, advocacy in the Assembly and letters to the Elysee, the association of PCRL is running out of steam. “
For six years, they have carried the life of the PCRLs at arm's length
,” notes Maître Magalie Guadaloupe Miranda. This lawyer at the Hauts-de-Seine Bar, who has already been in charge of eight PCRL cases in the past, decided to wake up the group of lawyers that had emerged in 2015 at the call of her colleague Caroline Decroix, before disintegrating. "
Theurgency requires pooling ideas and procedural strategies
», Explains the lawyer, who hopes in this way to wake up the dormant files pending, for two years for some, a response from the Council of State.
Read also: "By abandoning its Afghan interpreters, France has betrayed its honor"
In recent days, around thirty colleagues have already responded to the lawyer 's call. Of these, only four or five have already dealt with PCRL cases. The collective aims initially to list the requests, based on the census work carried out by Quentin Müller, independent journalist and author of
Tarjuman, a French betrayal
(Bayard). The journalist has noted in recent weeks 53 requests from Afghans who worked for the army and its commissary, more occasionally for the embassy. Among them are three women, former cooks. "
We are trying to identify those who do not yet have a lawyer and are fighting alone,
" explains the lawyer. "
We are also going to classify the cases, to consider the possibility of pooling disputes
”.
"
A painstaking job
", according to Quentin Müller, who wants to believe in a "
new hope
" for the last auxiliaries.
"
There is an emergency
"
In the eyes of French justice, three criteria condition the relocation requests: the period of service rendered to the French army, the quality of this service, and the level of the threat. "
The reasons for refusal are always vague,
" points out the association of PCRLs. “
Some have worked harder than others, but their cases are rejected on the pretext that they were not threatened.
"
This time, the latest events have changed the situation,
" says Quentin Müller. “
The departure of foreign forces brings down the last bulwark against the Taliban. From now on, they will have the free way to commit their crimes,
”points out the journalist.
In a statement in early June, the Taliban called on Afghans who worked for foreign armies to "
express remorse for their past actions which amount to treason against Islam and their country
".
They assured however that no harm would be done to them and that “
none of them should desert the country.
"
Pure diplomatic maneuver
," denounces Master Guadaloupe Miranda, who recalls that a month later, Abdul Basir, a former cook in the French army, was kidnapped and murdered by the Taliban after the discovery on his phone of employment contracts.
Read also: Afghanistan: among the last French in Kabul, a feeling of fear and resistance
Threat letters sent by the Taliban to former employees since 2001 are familiar to lawyers who follow their cases. Personal letters, threatening reprisals or sometimes summoning employees to act as infiltrators to collect various information. In June, William O'Rorke, whose Parisian firm ORWL Avocats defended some thirty PCRL cases, feared that the ultimate possibility for his clients who remained there was to use clandestine channels, via Turkey, in order to to reach Europe and ask for the right of asylum. “
A right that they would obtain in two weeks, while the legal route makes them wait years to finally disavow them,
” he lamented to Le
Figaro
.
An administrative inconsistency already highlighted by public law professor Serge Slama in an article on the Tarjuman published in March 2020. “
Of the 776 Afghan auxiliaries who served the French army between 2001 and 2014, it seems that less than a third had benefited from a visa for establishment in France. On the other hand, an Afghan who seeks international protection in France has an 83% chance of obtaining a statute from the Ofpra or the National Court of Asylum,
”he indicated.
France is not alone in this issue. On June 1, a collective of 17 associations sent a letter to NATO and 8 heads of state, including Emmanuel Macron, to demand the protection of former local personnel formerly recruited by the armies present on the spot. On July 15, the White House indicated that 20,000 Afghans, out of some 100,000 employees of the American army during twenty years of presence, had made the request, without counting their families. The first evacuations to the United States will take place during "
the last week of July
". For its part, the Canadian government announced on July 23 that Canada's "
road to protection
" will be open to Afghans with "an
important and lasting relationship.
With his army, without yet specifying the terms.
On the French side, while the Islamist insurgents have boasted of now controlling 90% of Afghanistan's borders, the group of lawyers intends to invoke this new context of urgency with the Council of State. "
Our action will be complementary to the association
", indicates the collective. Leaving the legal fight to legal professionals, Abdel continues for his part to plead with French deputies, and remains in constant contact, via WhatsApp and Messenger groups, with the last auxiliaries on site. The common objective remaining, above all, to make people talk about them. "
It has been a long time since the case no longer belongs to the field of justice, but to that of diplomacy and politics,
" Judge Guadaloupe Miranda.
