About 200 people gathered this Tuesday, May 2 in front of the Rhône prefecture, with the support of the Lyon bar association and associations, to denounce the delay in processing the files of foreign people.
"
We are probably the worst prefecture in France
," lamented Me Yannis Lantheaume, lawyer specializing in foreigners' rights.
Among the demonstrators, many foreigners testify (requiring anonymity) of the precarious situation in which they are kept because their file is not processed, whether they are undocumented or in the process of being regularized.
The wait is too long
"
These people have extremely long problems just to have a renewal of residence permit, a change of status, access to nationality, and here we are talking in terms of years", explains Me Lantheaume, against three
to theoretically twelve months depending on the situation, jeopardizing jobs or promises of employment.
"
The wait is too long, the files are full of dust I think
," laments a 44-year-old Algerian.
Hers was dropped off a year and a half ago, "
it's high like that
", she mimes with her hands, a good ten centimeters.
She has been in France for eight years, the eldest of her children is going to pass the baccalaureate.
Non-compliance with court decisions
A man explains that he will soon receive his eighth provisional residence receipt, renewed every three months, while waiting for his file to be processed.
La Cimade, the League for Human Rights, RESF, Secours Catholique and the Collective of Sans-Papiers 69 took part in the demonstration on Tuesday.
Lawyers also point to non-compliance with decisions of the administrative court.
“
In my office I have about twenty decisions out of 2022 in which the prefecture is condemned in 100% of cases because it did not respond within the time limit to a request for a residence permit.
And in 100% of cases, the prefecture has still not respected the judgments
, ”denounces Yannis Lantheaume again.
“Rule of law issue”
“
When the administration decides to sit on a court decision, we are on a problem that goes beyond foreigners, we are on a problem of the rule of law
”, he asserts.
Present on Tuesday, the President of the Bar Me Marie-Josèphe Laurent deplored "
the unacceptable and recurring dysfunction of the Directorate of Migration and Integration
", which "
above all, does not or belatedly execute the decisions made by the administrations
".
"
As processing times are detrimental to users but also to the administration, the prefecture is committed to controlling them and adapting its organization on a daily basis, in a context of increasing power of the dematerialization of requests", indicates for its part the
prefecture .
From 35,000 to 40,000 residence permits are issued each year by the Rhône prefecture and a thousand users are received daily at the Migration and Integration Department.
