Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin announced Tuesday to France Inter that women victims of domestic violence and in an irregular situation will be regularized by the prefects.
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Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin has asked the prefects to regularize women who are in France in an irregular situation and who are proven to be victims of domestic violence, reveals France Inter on Tuesday 23 November. A renewable residence permit for several years will be issued to these women. The prefects will receive this instruction by Thursday.
According to Gérald Darmanin, “these women are perhaps too often hesitant to go to a police station or a gendarmerie brigade and to seize the public prosecutor”. Gold, “if justice comes to show that the person against whom the complaint is lodged is, in fact, responsible for a rape or domestic violence”, the female victims will be regularized, promises the Minister of the Interior on France Inter, “in the name of the protection we owe them”.
This instruction will be sent to the prefects, police officers and gendarmes, in conjunction with Marlène Schiappa, Minister Delegate to the Minister of the Interior in charge of Citizenship. “As long as the complaint is not fully investigated, these women cannot be expelled from the territory of the Republic”, insisted the Minister of the Interior.
The Minister also recalled that women who came to France after their husbands obtained a residence permit already benefit from specific protection, “the time that the investigation can come to an end and especially the time that we can take care of your husband”. This residence permit is now granted to 220 to 250 people per year. “We could do a lot more and a lot better”, estimated Gérald Darmanin, who is committed to discussing with associations and lawyers. The Ministry of the Interior estimates that there are 600,000 to 700,000 legally resident foreigners in France.