Draft immigration bill under fire

Debates on the proposal for a new French immigration bill started on 28 September at the "Assemblée Nationale". The proposal has been strongly criticised by the diverse organizations working on migration issues. These argue that the bill is likely to violate the fundamental rights of migrants and refugees, and that the proposal reduces the power of the judges in favor of administrative authorities. Thomas Hammarberg, Council of Europe's Human Rights Commissioner, has also showed his concern.

Two amendments were proposed directly concerning health rights. One amendment restricts the scope of the AME (health coverage for undocumented migrants). The other amendment, concerning seriously ill migrants applying for a renewable one-year residence permit on the basis of lack of effective access to the treatment they need in their country of origin, replaces the lack of effective access to the treatment they need by the simple existence of such a treatment, which would very significantly impact this protection against expulsion mechanism. The text passed refers to the "availability" of the needed treatment, which will also clearly impact the protection of seriously ill migrants. As regards the AME, no changes were voted; the discussion will continue during the debates on the budget as a part of the members of parliament are willing to reduce dramatically its scope.

 

Sources:

- ECRE weekly bulletin, 1 October 2010

- ODSE, « Peut-on accepter de renvoyer des malades mourir dans leur pays d'origine ? »

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