Now, the associations are calling on “the MPs’ responsibility”, asking their MPs to “deeply” change the bill of law on immigration and access to political asylum, submitted by the Government yesterday, and to also consider their ideas, which are based on “situations experienced by migrants in France”. This has been written in a joint release by the associations that work in homing and social inclusion in France (including Secours catholique-Caritas, Jrs France, Medecins sans frontiers, Cimade, Emmaus Solidarieté, Unicef) about the bill of law submitted by the Government, which adds new rules to the management of migration flows to France. “Some measures are good”, the associations write, such as access to a “Resident Card” for parents of children who receive international protection or the extension of long-term residence permits to 4 years for recipients of subsidiary protection. “But this bill of law – the release says – mainly contains measures that will make asylum and welfare procedures worse”.
According to the associations, shortening the asylum application process – which is one of the government’s goals – “would mainly be detrimental to applicants and might leave thousands of people out of such protection”. In addition, they are not sure about the fact the bill of law gives Prefectures a supervisory role, which “might create general confusion between administrative supervision and social support, and might make it harder for humanitarian organisations to work in helping migrants have access to rights”. As the associations explain, “by undermining the very foundations of social work”, this bill of law “will alter the relationships of mutual trust between social workers and people who are in extremely uncertain living conditions, their families and their children, regardless of their administrative status being uncertain or not. Such guidelines could lead migrants to flee from social procedures and measures, thus multiplying situations of illegal migration and uncertain living conditions”. That’s why they ask that the bill of law be deeply changed in Parliament.