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Macron faces internal dissent as MPs pass tough immigration bill

Protesters in Toulouse
Protesters hold a banner reading ‘Against the asylum and immigration law, let’s resist with open arms’ during a demonstration in Toulouse last week. Photograph: Pascal Pavani/AFP/Getty Images

The French government has pushed tough immigration measures through the lower house of parliament, drawing criticism from dissenters in the ruling party.

In the first internal challenge to President Emmanuel Macron’s authority, one MP from his La République En Marche (LREM) party announced his resignation from the majority parliamentary group. Another 14 LREM MPs abstained from the vote.

Dozens more LREM MPs were reportedly deeply unhappy with the bill but were warned they faced sanctions if they rebelled.

Ministers argue that the bill, given its first reading in the Assemblée Nationale, will speed up asylum applications. Opponents, including humanitarian organisations, claim it will hit the most vulnerable refugees and asylum seekers.

Jean-Luc Mélenchon, of the hard-left France Insoumise (Unbowed France), attacked the government’s refusal to drop the detention of children, describing the practice as “barbaric”.

An often ill-tempered debate on the legislation ran for more than 60 hours and spilled over into the weekend as MPs tabled hundreds of amendments. The bill was eventually passed by 228 votes to 139 with 24 abstentions.

Jean-Michel Clément, one of a number of former Socialist party members drawn to Macron’s centrist party before last year’s general election, voted against the bill and said he would be leaving the majority parliamentary group.

“I’m not sure that we’re sending to citizens of the world the universal message that has always been ours,” Clément said.

The law will shorten asylum application deadlines, giving claimants 90 days to file their request, down from 120 days, and two weeks to appeal against a refusal. The bill proposes doubling the length of time for which refused asylum seekers can be detained, and introducing a one-year prison sentence for anyone who enters France illegally.

MPs from all parties, including LREM, have joined humanitarian organisations and NGOs working with migrants and refugees in voicing fierce opposition to the proposals. Critics claim the government is pandering to populist and rightwing sentiment.

While refugees granted asylum in France will be given help to integrate and to learn the language, the bill proposes allowing those awaiting deportation to be held for up to 90 days – twice the current 45-day period. The government had wanted this extended to 135 days.

Human Rights Watch said reducing asylum application deadlines could hit the most vulnerable asylum seekers, who it said were the most likely to miss the deadline. “Under the guise of providing a more effective asylum system, the bill includes a series of measures that would diminish access to protection,” said Bénédicte Jeannerod, HRW’s France director.

The government agreed to set up a working group to examine the question of whether refugee children and asylum seekers should be held in detention.

Last year France expelled 26,000 people, an increase of 14% on the previous year. At a meeting with gendarmes in January, the interior minister, Gérard Collomb, said he was satisfied with the arrest of 40,000 undocumented foreigners in France in 2017 and called for police to step up their action this year.

The bill now passes to the upper house of parliament, the Sénat, where it will be debated in June.

As MPs debated the bill, a far-right group, Génération Identitaire, set up a plastic barrier at a crossing point in the Alps used by refugees to enter from Italy. Demonstrators waved flags marked with “Defend Europe” and placed a banner in English reading: “Border closed. You will not make Europe your home. No way. Go home.”

The local prefecture said the protest at the Col de l’Echelle crossing had passed peacefully. Collomb described the protest as a publicity stunt but said he was sending police and gendarmes to secure the border.