This is a commitment by the State, faced with the growing number of prisoners convicted of terrorism who are being released from prison: all dual nationals deemed dangerous will be stripped of their French nationality and expelled. A promise that is difficult to keep and most often ends in a dead end.
The man we went to meet in a small town in eastern France should have left the country almost a year ago.
The older brother of one of the terrorists of November 13, 2015 in Paris, he was sentenced in 2016 to nine years in prison for having joined the ranks of the Islamic State in Syria.
I’m not here to make people cry, nor to play the victim card, I’ll go where I’m told to go.
Hicham, stripped of his French nationality and awaiting deportationIn the Eye of the 8pm News
The one we will call Hicham* was released from prison at the end of 2023. He thought he had paid his debt to society, until the publication of a government decree which immediately stripped him of his French nationality. “I am simply no longer French. I have no more documents, I had to return my passport, my identity card. I am unable to work. I was made to understand that I was undesirable, that they no longer wanted me here,” he said.
Born in France, naturalized at the age of 10, he is now under an expulsion order. But neither Algeria – his father’s country – nor Morocco – his mother’s country – will agree to issue him a consular pass: “I was the subject of a ministerial expulsion order, and the French administrative authorities were unable to expel me to the countries concerned. These countries did not follow up.”
Hicham is then placed in administrative detention center (CRA): 210 days, the maximum legal duration. He has been under house arrest for two months: “I am required to clock in three times a day, from Monday to Sunday, public holidays, with a ban on leaving the municipality to which I am assigned and with a curfew from 9 p.m. to 7 a.m. That, every day. I have also been subject to other administrative measures: such as the freezing of assets, which prevents me from having a bank card.”
Hicham is staying in a basic hotel, far from the city centre and located nearly 300 km from his home. The Prefecture is covering the costs of his accommodation: “Clearly, I cost money. I am a burden on the State, on public finances. 90 euros a night, do the math. THE lunch and dinner, that’s on me.”
That is a total of 2,700 euros per month, paid by the State. To which must be added nearly 130,000 euros, the cost of seven months in administrative detention, according to figures from the Court of Auditors.
Our interview ends, time for him to go and report to the police or be taken into custody. Hicham hopes to leave soon for Morocco but the administrative impasse could drag on for months, even years.
Last December, Josiane Chevalier, Prefect of Bas-Rhin, welcomed the expulsion of Hisham, which she hoped would happen: “As soon as possible, we hope“.
Today, in half-words, she draws up a statement of failure: “I hope that Morocco will eventually agree to our request, that we will be able to obtain the pass. It’s a complex issue. And we can’t get complex issues resolved as quickly as we’d like.”
The loss of nationality, a sanction provided for by the Civil Code which only applies to dual nationals naturalized for less than 15 years, convicted in particular for “has“harm to the fundamental interests of the Nation” or for “act of terrorism”.
A measure rarely implemented. Only eight cases of nationality loss have been pronounced since 2000, all for acts of terrorism.
But on October 6, 2015, at the National Assembly, theThe Minister of the Interior, Bernard Cazeneuve, announced that he had proposed to Prime Minister Manuel Valls that five people convicted of terrorism be stripped of their French nationality. Four Franco-Moroccans and one Franco-Turk were convicted as part of the investigation into the Casablanca attacks that left 45 dead, including 12 suicide bombers, and a hundred injured, on May 16, 2003 in Morocco.
Faced with the Islamist threat, the loss of nationality followed by expulsion appears to be an effective response.
Who will take back from us those whose French nationality we take away? Good luck, you will introduce them to me.
Emmanuel Macron, candidate for the presidential election, April 10, 2017
A few months later, on April 10, 2027, she is yet denounced by a certain Emmanuel Macron, then candidate for the 2017 presidential election: “I think it’s a wrong answer because she is ineffective. Such a sanction leads to a response. almost impossible. Who will take back from us those from whom we take away the French nationality ? Good luck, you will introduce them to me.”
C’However, it is under the presidency of Emmanuel Macron that the number of forfeitures has exploded: two procedures in 2019, four in 2020 and 2021, six in 2022eleven in 2023 and already twenty since January 1, 2024.
And, regularly, the Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin announced on the social network X (formerly Twitter) new forfeitures with a view to expulsions.
Lucie Simon is a criminal lawyer at the Val-de-Marne bar. Three of her clients have been stripped of their French nationality. Despite expulsion measures, they are still present on the territory: “One of the people I defend asked the Moroccan consulate for passes seven times. He was told – and I found the administrative officer’s answer quite eloquent: “Listen, sir, it’s not our fault if your parents are of Moroccan origin. That says something.” They have lived their whole lives in France and when they are stripped of their French nationality and expelled, these countries – ultimately – do not know them. No papers, no passport, no birth certificate, no civil status certificate. The countries simply do not want to take them back. It would not even be taking them back, it would simply be welcoming them for the first time.”
Are we creating time bombs? I hope not.
Me Lucie Simon, criminal lawyerIn the Eye of the 8pm News
One of his clients, who has served his sentence, has been in this administrative impasse for more than two years: “I think it is a dangerous policy, because it is a short-term policy, and in the long term it can have very serious consequences from a security point of view. I find it hard to understand that it is precisely to protect the security of the French that we are taking such decisions. Are we creating time bombs? I hope not,” she concludes.
Among the forty-seven French people stripped of their nationality since 2019, how many have actually left France? The question is sensitive, the Ministry of the Interior does not communicate the figures. A source at the Ministry of the Interior nevertheless assumes the strategy of the authorities: “These countries don’t want to bother receiving a terrorist, that’s what it is. But we’re talking about people who have committed terrorist acts, who are at the high end of the criminal conviction spectrum. Our logic is to make their lives hell. It’s also a signal, there’s a message sent to others.”
Despite the difficulties in carrying out these procedures, their numbers are expected to increase significantly. According to a Senate report, between 150 and 250 terrorists will be released from detention by December 2026.
* Assumed first name