Keeping out the Riff-Raff

As a follow-up to yesterday’s post: the other Gallic shoe has dropped concerning Tunisian immigrants who are attempting to enter France from Italy.

French lawyers have now examined the jots and tittles of European Union law as it pertains to refugees and asylum seekers. Their conclusion? Tunisians may enter France, but only if they meet certain stringent conditions.

I’m no expert on EU asylum law, so anybody who is familiar with it is welcome to parse the French response and see if it seems to violate any of the notorious “human rights” provisions that hamper Italy, Greece, Malta, and other EU member states who are being overrun with culture enrichers. In particular, the requirement that immigrants show they have “sufficient resources” — would the ECHR allow such a provision to stand? Not that the French have ever worried much about EU law or anything…

Also, the stipulation that refugees must demonstrate that “their presence does not represent a threat to public order in France” would exclude virtually all cultural enrichment from France, if applied strictly and consistently.

Here’s the story from ANSAmed:

France Sets Five Strict Rules for Entry

PARIS, APRIL 7 — This morning the French Ministry of the Interior issued a document to all of the prefects in the country, underlining five very strict rules for entry into France from “a third-party country” that is a member of the Schengen Area.

The letter comes as a response to the decision made by the Italian authorities to grant temporary stay permits to Tunisian immigrants who have arrived on the island of Lampedusa. Yesterday a source close to Interior Minister Claude Gueant told Le Post.fr that the government is working on a plan to respond to Italy’s measure and to avoid a wave of immigrants from coming into the country.

The document sent to the prefects today explains that immigrants from a Schengen country “can stay in France for no more than three months”, but must respect various conditions: they must have “either a valid stay permit issued by a Schengen country and their passport”, “or valid temporary authorisation of stay issued by a member-state, accompanied by a travel document issued by the same member-state”.

“In each of these scenarios, these stay permits and temporary stay authorisations are acceptable only if the state that issued them notifies the European Commission,” the document explained to the prefects. In addition to “a valid stay permit” and a “valid travel document recognised by France”, these individuals must “show that they have sufficient resources” and that “their presence does not represent a threat to public order in France”. The prefects were instructed to “verify that all five conditions have been met. In any other case, these individuals shall be sent back to the member-state from which they came”.

Hat tip: Insubria.