By Hafsa Alami
PARIS (AA) - Protesters demonstrated in Paris over the weekend against a new draft immigration law and to demand adequate housing for all.
The protests came ahead of the scheduled Nov. 6 Senate discussion on the draft law, which was proposed by Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin and presented to the Cabinet in February.
There have been previous protests against the controversial bill, which includes harsh measures against migrants, including imprisonment for up to two years, and gives authorities the power to deport them without permission from the judiciary.
“I am here today to support undocumented migrants and asylum seekers against the Darmanin law,” Anzoumane Sissoko, a member of the French undocumented migrants’ movement, told Anadolu.
“I don’t know why France does not want to regularize these migrants, even though the country is in need of foreign workers,” he said.
The protesters said the law will complicate the process for migrants to legal status in France and will increase deportations.
According to Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, 15,000 people were deported from France last year.
“People flee their countries and risk their lives crossing the Sahelian desert, some crossing Libya, to have a better life,” Jerome Legavre, a member of the French leftist party La France Insoumise, told Anadolu.
“Refugees should be helped, and many of them still sleep on the sidewalks and under the bridges in a terrible situation,” he added.
The draft law aims to bolster the fight against irregular immigration and facilitate the expulsion of foreigners who do not respect the “values of the Republic,” according to statements by Darmanin.
- ‘More and more difficult to find housing’
For two decades, the low-cost housing sector in France has been facing a myriad of problems.
Since Emmanuel Macron became president in 2017, criticism of the issue has increased considerably as the consequences are tangible: the deterioration of maintenance and a decline in construction, while demand is exploding.
The situation worsened with the Kasbarian-Berge law, which came into force in July, criminalizing squatting and giving landlords more powers to evict people.
It will add an “automatic termination clause” to lease contracts, which would allow an owner to end the lease without taking legal action.
The law also includes a two-year prison sentence and a €30,000 ($31,700) fine for individuals or families who take shelter in uninhabited housing, empty offices, or abandoned industrial or agricultural buildings, as well as employees who occupy their workplace as part of social movements.
It also has a fine of €7,500 for tenants who remain in their dwelling after eviction proceedings.
In its annual report, the Abbe-Pierre Foundation, which focuses on substandard housing and exclusion, placed the number of homeless people in France at around 330,000 in 2022, or 30,000 more than the previous year.
The legislation has drawn condemnation from left-wing parties and rights groups, who say its provisions are unacceptable.
The weekend protests called on authorities to play their role in providing affordable housing, emphasizing that one out of every two people deprived of housing are foreign migrants, including asylum seekers.
“We face a deteriorating situation in our country and the working classes are the most affected by the housing crisis,” Jean-Baptiste Eyraud, head of the NGO Right to Housing (Droit au logement, or DAL), told Anadolu.
“It is more and more difficult to find housing in Paris and other cities in France, and it affects students, young people, employees, vulnerable workers, as well as migrants,” he added.