Inter-associative space for the defence of the rights of exiled persons

With more than 20 laws passed in 30 years, France continues to adopt increasingly repressive measures against exiled people. Between 2022 and January 2024, more than fifty groups of exiled people, associations supporting their rights and trade unions, mobilised against the Asylum and Immigration Bill (Darmanin law) and for the adoption of other migration policies that respect dignity and fundamental rights.

Since the law was promulgated in January 2024, the organisations have maintained a broad forum for exchange, led by VoxPublic, to facilitate the emergence of joint initiatives and fight against the restriction of the rights of exiled people.

For several decades now, the rights of exiled people have been restricted as new legal texts and exclusionary institutional practices have been adopted. On 26 January 2024, the Darmanin law ‘to control immigration and improve integration’ came into force. It marks an unprecedented intensification of repression against migrants. Just one year after its promulgation, the circular issued by the new Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau, further restricted access to residence for undocumented migrants by repealing the Valls circular which, among other things, allowed regularisation through work.
Violations of the rights of exiled people continue to multiply, in a political climate marked by the freeing up of racist and xenophobic speech. This context provides fertile ground for projects, often inspired by the ideas of the far right and the conservative right, that threaten the rights and freedoms of exiled people.

For example, the government plans to increase the maximum legal period of detention. State Medical Aid, which is essential for people’s access to healthcare and for responding to public health issues, is regularly under attack, and 2025 will be marked by the implementation of the European Pact on Migration and Asylum. This ongoing instrumentalisation of migration policies for security and strategic purposes flouts the fundamental rights and dignity of migrant people with impunity.

OBJECTIVES AND PARTNERS

VoxPublic is continuing the work begun in September 2022 by coordinating an inter-associative space to promote :

• the pooling of information relating to French migration policies ;
• the sharing and pooling of resources and tools ;
• the emergence of collective action to counter restrictions on the rights of exiled people.

This inter-associative space includes around sixty solidarity associations, trade unions and groups of people concerned working to defend the rights of exiled people.

VOXPUBLIC’S ROLE AND MISSIONS

• Lead the collective meetings of the inter-associative space ;
• Ensuring that information is properly circulated among the members via a mailing list ;
• Facilitating the emergence of collective initiatives led by the working groups set up at the meetings of the discussion forum.

THE VARIOUS INITIATIVES UNDERTAKEN BY ASSOCIATIONS AND GROUPS

• An inter-associative press conference on 28 January 2025, one year after the enactment of the Asylum and Immigration Act, to assess its consequences, with speeches by representatives of the Ile-de-France inter-collectif des sans-papiers.
• The production and publication, in January 2025, of an inter-associative document ‘Asylum and Immigration Law : one year on, the sad assessment of rights violated’ co-signed by some forty organisations, to analyse the observable consequences (to date) of the Darmanin law.