Francis Lamy leaves his post as prefect of the Alpes-Maritimes for the Auvergne region. He was just appointed to this new position on Wednesday. This promotion was confirmed in the council of Ministers “on the proposal of the Minister of the Interior.” The prefect of the Alpes-Maritimes will remain in office until a successor is found.
Collision of events? While the Minister of the Interior Claude Guéant is at the center of controversy – aiming for 28,000 deportations of illegal immigrants in 2011 and wishing to reduce legal immigration – the prefect of the Alpes-Maritimes Francis Lamy is reassigned after Le Monde revealed two notes regarding his immigration policy.
In office since October 31, 2008, the prefect of the AM seems to have set numerical targets for the police services in the department, as Le Monde reveals. In a note from February 2, 2011, he estimated that 1,420 deportations to the country of origin for foreigners in an irregular situation were to be carried out in 2011. In a second note dated February 8, 2011, the PAF (Border Police) management specified that police officers should send 3,500 illegal foreigners back to Italy, corresponding to 6,200 arrests including 4,000 in Menton and 2,200 in Nice.
These objectives are deemed unacceptable by the Unité-SGP union in a turbulent context… On March 15, the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes denied information from a union source, relayed by an elected official, according to which a regional express train (TER) carriage had been requisitioned to return 39 Afghan illegals to Italy. Additionally, the Tunisian revolution has increased the flow of Tunisian illegals to our borders. Arrests have multiplied as a result.
Was the prefect’s zeal punished even though he had received support from the Minister of the Interior after the publication of the notes in Le Monde?
