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France - immigration

DNA tests for would-be immigrants on hold

Article published on the 2009-09-14 Latest update 2009-09-14 11:14 TU

Eric Besson, French Immigration Minister and former Socialist Party member, in Paris, May 2008.(Photo: AFP)

Eric Besson, French Immigration Minister and former Socialist Party member, in Paris, May 2008.
(Photo: AFP)

France' s Immigration Minister Eric Besson has said he will refuse to sign a decree into law because it contains too many restrictions. Besson considers that he cannot respect the law to the letter, and that the date of application - 31 December 2009 - is too close to allow the law to function as it was intended.

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Several immigrant support organisations expressed their joy on Monday at the government's decision not to implement the law on DNA test for immigrants' relatives seeking to join them in France.

SOS Racisme, one of the leading immigration and anti-racism lobbies in France said referring to law as a "populist measure aimed at identifying foreigners as cheats", that "the detestable chapter of DNA tests for family reunification is closed for once and for all."

Although SOS Racisme was celebrating its own efforts that it says rendered the law unoperational, another group which helps asylum seekers in France, France Terre d'Asile, while welcoming a decision that "goes in the right direction," was more reserved.

France Terre d'Asile underlines the fact that the law passed in 2007 on immigrations controls, contains other measures which tighten up reunificiation processes in France.

The law, which was adopted when current Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux was in charge of France's immigration portfolio, was to apply to citizens of nine countries in Africa and Asia: lAngola, Bangladesh, Cameroon, Cap Verde, Dominican Republic, Guinea-Conakry, Ghana, Madagascar and Pakistan.

Besson said he was not "in a position to respect the spirit of the law nor could he respect it to the letter."

There was considerble protest in France at the time of the parliamentary debate on the law. The highest legal authority, the Conseil Constitutionnel - or Constitutional Council - gave its green light but with reservations, that meant the DNA tests could not be used systematically.