About 200 people gathered on Tuesday in front of the Rhône prefecture, with the support of the Lyon Bar Association and associations such as Cimade, the Human Rights League or Secours Catholique, to denounce the delay in processing of foreign persons’ files. “We are probably the worst prefecture in France,” laments Yannis Lantheaume, a lawyer specializing in immigration law.
Among the demonstrators, many foreigners testify – requesting 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.
Years of waiting
“These people have extremely long problems just to have a residence permit renewed, a change of status, access to nationality, and here we are talking in terms of years”, explains Yannis Lantheaume, specifying that the deadlines are theoretically three to twelve months depending on the situation. And waiting, he points out, jeopardizes jobs or promises of employment.
“The wait is too long, the files are full of dust I think,” laments a 44-year-old Algerian. His was filed a year and a half ago. “He’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. 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.
Non-compliance with the decisions of the administrative court
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.
“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.
2023-05-03 07:43:45
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