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France/Security: spectacular deportations are pointless and dangerous
In other immigration-related news, sarko, on demand from algiers, wishes to suppress the authorization for a visa needed for algerians wishing to visit France.EXCLUSIVE/France/Security: spectacular deportations are pointless and dangerous while fuelling discontent amongst police officers On 1st January 2007, Romanians and Bulgarians, who will have just become citizens of the expanded, 27-member European Union, will be able to move freely across the borders of EU member states, including France. Apparently this is not dissuading the Ministry of the Interior from contemplating a move to step up deportations of Romanians and Bulgarians, sometimes even to the detriment of their security, during the final weeks of 2006. According to police officers who have contacted ESISC to denounce what has been happening, the objective of the cabinet of the Minister of the Interior is to reach the symbolic figure of 25,000 deportations per year. The reason for this choice is easy to understand: the removal of Eastern European nationals most often occurs smoothly, whereas when similar operations target North or Sub-Saharan Africans, rebellions and violence are widespread occurrences, which obviously reflects negatively on the image of police officers that the Place Bauveau wants to promote. An end to deportations of Bulgarians and Romanians as of 1st January is likely to be expressed as a 27% drop in operations pertaining to removal from national territory. The fact that the Ministry of the Interior is the majoritys top candidate for future presidential elections is clearly not completely separate from this police pressure, which is hardly reasonable. Indeed, these operations cost quite a bit to yield an outcome that is said to be ridiculous, since, in six weeks, the borders will be open to nationals of the new member states. On 3rd November, an Air France aircraft chartered by the Ministry flew 75 Romanians with irregular immigration status to Budapest. The operation, which mobilised 86 police officers, cost about 400,000 euros. And it is not just that the exorbitant cost of these useless operations is problematic, as they also pose a real danger. Another charter flight took off on 8th November-certainly less spectacular but considerably riskier. A DASH 8-100 operated by the French Civil Security Agency (which is joined to the Ministry of the Interior) repatriated 25 Romanians, accompanied by 25 escorts. Two DASH 8-100 aircrafts were being used as replacements for two Fokker-F27 planes employed until then as air tankers to fight forest fires and withdrawn from service. The two airplanes had been purchased from the Canadian company Conair by the Ministry of Defence on behalf of the Ministry of the Interior. They were unable to do what they were supposed to do, to the extent that the Civil Security Agency wanted to get rid of them. The Ministry of the Interior now uses them to transport deportees. One aircraft is based in Bordeaux, while the other is based in Marseille/Istres. According to our sources, the two airplanes did not receive flight authorisation from the Head Office of the Civil Aviation Authority and are thus permanently exempt. Right up until the snag that is likely to happen. Quickly converted in order to transport passengers, the DASH 8-100 aircrafts indeed did not meet the requirements for serving as transporters, as they were not, amongst other things, equipped with oxygen mass. A bothersome detail for a piece of machinery that is capable of flying at altitudes of 7,620 metres (25,000 feet). If any problems should occur, babies, the elderly, and individuals in poor physical condition would thus be in danger. Discontent amongst police officers has been exacerbated by an affair in which big money was involved: the people being escorted to the border were supervised by 165 UNESI (a police unit specialising in these operations) escorts and by 40 civil servants belonging to the security branch of Paris Police Headquarters. These civil servants are now up in arms because Decree 2006-781, dated 3rd July 2006, which was issued by the Ministry of the Interior and regulates mission costs, forces escorts to pay large sums in advance (round-trip tickets when deportations take place using an airliner, local travel, etc.), often pushing these government employees into debt to their banks. For police officers who earn between 1,500 and 2,000 euros per month and must often wait 3-6 months for cost reimbursements, they have simply had enough Without committing ourselves politically, we at ESISC have often defended the measures taken or recommended by Nicolas Sarkozy, such as when he took issue with certain magistrates for failing to be in touch with reality. But we do not think that the security policy that France urgently needs should be implemented through spectacular operations, splashy announcements, and measures that threaten the lives of both staff members and users. Especially when these measures serve no purpose other than to mechanically boost hollow statistics. But media-savvy sarko has no achievement to boast for, for his long two-parts stint as an interior minister, so hollow stats are the way to go for him. Posted by: anonymous5089 2006-11-13 |
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