“Let them grow here. » The banner is held up by the Human Rights League (LDH) of the Territoire de Belfort in the courtyard of the Belfort prefecture, this Wednesday, June 26. For two years, the LDH has supported an Armenian family from Belfort to avoid their expulsion from the national territory. Arsen Mirzoyan and Lusine Hovhannisyan are the parents of four boys, aged from 1 month to 10 years old. And they have all been threatened with expulsion since the last OQTF (Obligation to leave French territory), pronounced in November 2022. But they do not wish to return to Armenia. The country is at the heart of a border conflict with Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh region. “I am not someone who asks for papers to do nothing and live on aid. It’s just impossible for me and my family to go back there.”says Arsen Mirzoyan.
Arriving in Paris in 2005, without a travel document, Arsen Mirzoyan subsequently joined his mother and sister in Belfort. Then, he was joined by his partner Lusine Hovhannisyan in 2013. All their children were born in France and three of them went to school in Belfort. So, in the courtyard of the prefecture there are also the directors of the schools where the children are. “The children are very well integrated”says one of them. This action of going to the prefecture shows the desire to make themselves heard. “We want to show that the Mirzoyan-Hovhannisyan family wants to integrate. The children speak French and [leur papa] wants to work as quickly as possible. There are even two companies that are ready to hire him right now”argues Chantal Philippon, file in hand.
In this one, several letters. First, schools and the Human Rights League. But also letters from elected officials: one from Christophe Grudler, Renew MEP, re-elected on June 9 (read our article) ; and the other from Ian Boucard, Les Républicains (LR) deputy from the 1st constituency of the Territoire de Belfort (South Territory). “We come to ask the prefect (Raphael Sodini, Editor’s note) to grant a residence permit for humanitarian reasons to this family. This is the only recourse we have left.”supports Chantal Philippon. On November 23, 2023, during the last meeting between the prefect and the LDH, he had suggested that no expulsion measures would be attempted before the end of the school year. But since the school year ends next week, there was an urgent need for action for the association. The arrival of the small procession in the prefecture is, at first, poorly received. ” Stay here, indicates a member of the prefecture. Then to point the finger in particular at Chantal Philippon: Just you two can go in.” After a five-minute interview with Renaud Nury, the secretary general of the prefecture of the Territoire de Belfort, the two interlocutors come out.
