A 22-year-old suspect, previously convicted of rape and subject to an order to leave French territory (OQTF), was arrested on Tuesday in Switzerland in the case of the murder of a young student in Paris.
Published
Updated
Reading time: 4 min
The profile of the suspect in the murder of Philippine, a student whose body was found in the Bois de Boulogne in Paris, has rekindled the debate on the OQTF (obligation to leave French territory). Aged 22, he was arrested on Tuesday, September 24 in Geneva, Switzerland and was subject to an obligation to leave French territory. Since then, several political leaders, from both the right and the left, have questioned “the criminal and administrative chain”judging that the suspect should not have been in the wild because he was subject to an OQTF. Franceinfo returns to these legal provisions.
1 What is an OQTF?
This is a decision taken by the prefect and which targets people in an irregular situation in France. There are two types of OQTF: those which must be executed within 30 days and others in less than 48 hours, if the person represents a threat to public order. If at the end of this period, 30 days or 48 hours, the person has not left of their own accord, it is the French administration which then organizes their departure.
For Aurélien Martini, deputy general secretary of the Union syndicale des magistrats, “We must clearly distinguish between what actually falls under the criminal chain, which goes from arrest to the execution of a sentence and in which the judicial system has full responsibility, and what then falls under an OQTF, which falls under the administrative authority, the prefect in this case. OQTFs are controlled by the administrative judge with all the difficulties that this entails.”the magistrate emphasized on franceinfo on Wednesday.
2 Are OQTFs executed?
For years, the number of OQTF executions has been low and has even tended to decrease. Around the 2010s, around 15% of orders to leave the territory were carried out to completion, according to figures provided by the Senate. Their execution only reached 6 to 7% a decade later, in the midst of the Covid health crisis, where many borders remained closed. According to the latest figures available, the number of OQTFs executed rose slightly in 2022.
According to a report by the Court of Auditors, it is now around 10%. In terms of absolute value, of the approximately 135,000 OQTFs issued in 2022, approximately 15,000 resulted in removal or voluntary departure.
3 Why are OQTFs rarely executed?
The rate of execution of OQTFs remains low for several reasons, according to a report from the Court of Auditors of January 2024, in particular because of the very large number of procedures initiated which “clog up the prefectures” . Or even OQTFs which sometimes target people who cannot be removed because they come from a country at war.
There is also a reason that prevents the execution of these OQTFs: France must obtain a “consular pass” from the country that will host the deported person. This pass is precisely the document that was missing in this case, because it arrived after the deadline. “It is not a question of casting stones at the administrative authority, it is complicated, but there is a question of competence and respect for the skills of each personunderlines magistrate Aurélien Martini. Afterwards, the question is the capacity of these services to monitor all the prisoners who are released early. And there, we have a real question of means and effectiveness of these effective services.”
4 Why is a consular pass necessary to execute an OQTF?
A laissez-passer is the document required to be able to send a person under OQTF back to their country. It is even “the most thorny question”according to a parliamentary report published in 2023, because several countries do not respond, or very little, to these requests for consular passes. For example, in 2021, France requested almost 5,500 and only half were issued.
5 Why such a low response rate from countries of origin?
This rate depends on the country: some are cooperative and others are very uncooperative, particularly in the Maghreb. According to a parliamentary report, in recent years, Morocco and Algeria have accepted only half of French requests for a consular pass, and barely a third of favorable responses for Tunisia.
This is also why France engaged in a standoff with Algeria in 2021 and issued fewer visas in order to obtain more consular passes. According to the same parliamentary report, the number of returns had increased, even if the volume remained low despite everything.