In 2015, under François Hollande, France had committed to welcoming nearly 30,000 asylum seekers on its soil by 2017. The country had welcomed nearly 5,940 refugees, according to figures from the European Commission dated July 2017.
On June 22nd, Emmanuel Macron called for “the greatest humanity” in managing migrants and assured that asylum law reform was one of the “priorities of governmental work,” after renewed criticism from the Defender of Rights, Jacques Toubon, regarding the Calais site.
The next day, the head of state stated from Brussels that “we must welcome refugees because it is our tradition and our honor.”
But many associations and personalities denounced a double discourse between Emmanuel Macron and Gérard Collomb.
In June, the Minister of the Interior, for his part, displayed his firmness towards Calais, which he called a “flashpoint.” He then reaffirmed his refusal of any migrant reception center in the name of the risk of a “pull factor.”
This “ostrich” policy is not paying off; it drags out the problem but does not solve it.
It leaves open space for all those so-called “humanitarian” initiatives, initially measurable but eventually turning into a soap opera.
This is indeed the case with the Gandhi of the Roya, the ineffable Cédric Herrou, for whom it is easy to predict a future political career. Moreover, as can be read below, he has already found a mentor in José Bové, another who had started by playing the anti-system rebel…before joining it through the main door (with a handsome remuneration to boot).
The MEP José Bové, visiting the Roya Valley since this Saturday to meet with the Roya Citoyenne association, accompanied a group of migrants heading to Nice to submit an asylum application at the Asylum Seekers Assistance Platform (PADA). There were about 200 of them from Breil-sur-Roya.
Yesterday morning, at Nice station, José Bové, the ecologist MEP, and Cédric Herrou from the Roya Citoyenne association, highlighted the conditions of detention of migrants at the Italian border.
On-site in the Roya Valley for three days, the European deputy had already called on Saturday for President Emmanuel Macron to “open his borders” to “refugees,” during a gathering in Tende in the Alpes-Maritimes. “France is not fulfilling its role as a host,” he declared.
