2012-07-11 Ranska: French police lose power to detain illegal immigrants

[Suomi2050]

France24: http://www.france24.com/en/20120706-police-lose-automatic-power-detain-illegal-immigrants-france-court

French police lose power to detain illegal immigrants

Illegal immigrants in France can no longer be held in police custody simply for not having residency papers, the country's highest court ruled on Thursday.

Until now, police could detain "sans-papiers" ["without papers", the French term for illegal aliens] even if they had not committed a crime.

Under French law, police detention only applies to people suspected of having committed an offence punishable with a prison term.

Police detention is limited to 24 hours, although it can be extended to 48 if further inquiries have to be made. Being an illegal alien, under French law, is not a criminal offence.

Being an illegal alien is not a crime in France

On Thursday the French "Cour de Cassation" [the country's highest court] ruled in favour of a group of illegal immigrants who claimed their detentions were in breach of European law.

Interior Minister Manuel Valls said after the ruling that the government would act swiftly to amend French law, although he maintained that "the ultimate removal of illegal aliens [from France] must remain central to any legislation on this issue."

Immigrants' rights groups were delighted with the decision to halt what were effectively automatic arrests, a situation that affects some 60,000 people a year in France.

"To date the police have been arresting and detaining immigrants on a massive scale," said Agathe Marin, spokeswoman for the Cimade refugees' association that represented the immigrants in the court.

"After they are detained, most of these people are released anyway," she told FRANCE 24. "We hope that this ruling will ensure that the police are respectful of immigrants' basic rights and stop treating them like criminals."

Cimade has been putting the government under pressure since April 2011 when the European Court of Justice ruled that member nations could only arrest illegal aliens if they had committed an imprisonable offence.

[Suomi2050]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2175441/French-government-pass-law-making-ILLEGAL-arrest-UK-bound-illegal-immigrants-Calais.html

French government to pass law making it ILLEGAL to arrest UK-bound illegal immigrants in Calais

France's new socialist government is to pass a law making it illegal to arrest Britain-bound migrants flooding into Calais.

The proposed legislation comes after the country's highest court ruled illegal immigrants cannot be held in custody for having no identity papers.

It is feared the new rules - due to become law in the autumn - will unleash a fresh tide of migrants on the northern French coast hoping to sneak on lorries and ferries to Britain.

The law will affect around 1,000 illegal immigrants massed on the northern French coast, and up to 60,000 across the whole of France.

Since the bulldozing of the Sangatte camp in 2002 - which acted as a stepping stone for an estimated 50,000 migrants to reach Britain - numbers of illegal immigrants in Calais have been gradually falling.

[Teslaisto]

Ranska on todellakin menetetty kansakunta, kun laittomia maahanmuuttajia ei voida enää pidättää...

Kohta maa on kuin Paskastanistan. Euroopan tulevaisuus näyttänee erittäin valoisalta!