France

02/04/2025 – 24/04/2025

• On April 21, French authorities rescued 47 migrants attempting to cross the Channel in “small boats” to reach the United Kingdom. Forty-two of them were on a vessel that had suffered engine failure. Four others, aboard a separate dinghy, requested assistance and were brought back to the port of Calais. 
• On April 18, four organizations, including the Ligue des droits de l’Homme (LDH), filed a petition with the Montreuil administrative court challenging circulars instructing police officers to report legally residing foreigners placed in police custody. According to the LDH, these reports undermine the confidentiality of investigations and the presumption of innocence, while fueling the criminalization of foreigners. 
• On 14 April, the creation of a Franco-Moroccan working group was announced by Bruno Retailleau. The aim is to facilitate the expulsion of migrants in a so-called irregular situation in France. This mixed group will have the mission of determining the Moroccan nationality of certain people more effectively in order to obtain consular passes more quickly, necessary for their readmission to their country of origin. Once again, the French Minister of the Interior is doing everything possible to increase deportations.  
• From 12 to 13 April, fifty people were rescued while trying to cross the Channel to England. Since the beginning of April, attempts to cross have multiplied.  
• On 11 April, Bruno Retailleau announced that he wanted to create an intelligence unit specialising in so-called illegal immigration. This structure would be located in Biriatou, on the French-Spanish border. A similar cell already exists in Paris.  
• On April 11, the lifeless body of a woman was found in a makeshift camp near Dunkerk. According to the Dunkerk prosecutor, it is a Sudanese woman suffering from health problems, but verifications are still underway. 
• In an interview published online on April 8, Laurent Wauquiez, leader of the right-wing Les Républicains deputies, proposed to “lock up” “dangerous” people under the OQTF (Obligation to leave French territory) in Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, in North America. According to him, these people would have “only one alternative: either to leave for Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, or to return home”.