While a draft law on asylum and immigration will arrive in Parliament in early 2023, Gérald Darmanin unveiled the main lines. The Minister of the Interior has declared that he wants to be “mean with the mean and kind with the good”, in an interview at World, Wednesday, November 2. He notably mentioned people in an irregular situation subject to an obligation to leave French territory (OQTF), to whom he wants to return “the impossible life (…) by ensuring that they no longer benefit from social benefits or social housing”. But can these people really benefit from this state aid? Franceinfo checked.
Regarding all social assistance, French law is clear. A person in an irregular situation does not benefit from family allowances, social minima or social housing. “If someone benefits from CAF aid, it is because they have a residence permit or a receipt for a renewal application”, specifies lawyer Nicolas De Sa-Pallix, practicing mainly in the right to asylum and the rights of foreigners.
However, some specific measures can still benefit people in an irregular situation. This is the case of the State Medical Aid (AME), a system allowing foreigners in an irregular situation who have resided in the territory for more than three months to benefit from 100% coverage of medical care and hospitals within the limits of social security tariffs. About 400,000 people are beneficiaries in France, according to the French Office for Immigration and Integration.
Access to emergency accommodation is also open to people in an irregular situation, in the same way as any resident on French territory. On this subject, the Minister of the Interior clarified his remarks to franceinfo. “People under OQTF only have access to emergency accommodation, but before they have an OQTF, they are entitled to social housing”explains Gérald Darmanin, who thus evokes the case of people whose situation has changed, going from a regular to an irregular situation, after the non-renewal of a residence permit, for example. “When the OQTF falls, the prefecture knows it, but not the social landlord. There is a lack of discussion between the two which means that the person under OQTF does not necessarily leave social housing. That’s what I want to change”he justifies.
This case, linked to a change in the situation of the person residing in France, seems to exist. “A person in a regular situation may no longer be, and therefore no longer have aid, and the question is whether the organizations responsible for verifying social benefits do so, and some do not always do so”, confirms Didier Leschi, Director General of the French Office for Immigration and Integration.