in Isère, associations denounce a “factory of undocumented immigrants”

In Isère, for several months, foreign workers have been struggling to renew their rights. Difficult for them to obtain even an appointment with the prefecture. Loss of employment, loss of housing, this situation plunges them into great precariousness.

They are students, employees or foreign delivery drivers and are in desperate search of an appointment to renew their rights: since spring 2024, the Isère prefecture has strongly restricted physical reception, creating what the associations describe as “factory of undocumented immigrants”.

While the Defender of Rights Claire Hédon warns in a report published Wednesday December 11 on the “massive attacks on users’ rights” generated by the dematerialization of processes for processing residence permit applications from foreign nationals, Isère associations have been denouncing for months a situation which, according to them, “is only getting worse.”

Some 200 people demonstrated in early December in Grenoble at the initiative of the CGT and the “Bouge ta préf’38” collective. The latter calls on the new prefect, Catherine Séguin, to amend the system, failing which he will take the matter to the administrative court.

According to the members of the collective, which was created last May and brings together around fifty associations, the situation took a critical turn in March 2024 when the prefecture decided to prohibit access to its premises to any person 'having no appointments, which are very difficult to obtain.

“The rare slots available on the internet are snatched up by robots managed by agencies and resold at high prices on the black market,” underline the associations.

Jacqueline, a fifty-year-old who arrived in 2019 from an African country, like many others encountered this “digital wall” : a care assistant, she had to stop working for three weeks in the spring due to lack of proper papers.

She has since managed, after great difficulty and thanks to the intervention of a third party, to obtain an appointment to renew her residence permit but is worried about her husband, whose permit has already expired. Jacqueline finds herself supporting her family financially at arm's length: “I suffer”she blurted.

The closure of physical access to the prefecture has led hundreds of people in a legal situation to lose their rights and sometimes, in the process, their work, their housing or their social rights.

Martine Faure Saint-Aman, regional president of Cimade

These are “students, employees, doctors, engineers, plumbers, masons… people from all countries combined and in dramatic situations. We saw many people crying in front of the prefecture in helpless situations incredible”she continues.

“There is a set of obstacles, voluntary or involuntary, I have no idea about that, but a set of obstacles which prevent users from having access to their rights. (…) We are no longer at apply for a residence permit, we are just asking for an appointment!”, she is indignant.

“Some students, due to lack of proper papers, lose their accommodation and crowd together 6, 7 or 8 people in 12 m²”relates Emmanuel Omonlogo, representative of the African students association of Isère.

The prefecture explained in a press release at the end of October that the “redesign” reception conditions for foreign users and the conditions for issuing residence permits aims to “secure the entire delivery process” and to “improve lead times”.

“The number of appointment slots available is adapted to the reception of 15,000 foreign nationals and the delays in issuing permits have decreased following the reform”, she believes.

The administration recognizes, however, that the appointment system of several prefectures “is the victim of malicious acts causing serious malfunctions and not allowing users to reserve appointment slots as planned”. A complaint was filed in July.

“In Isère, the situation is all the more tense as the service was destabilized by the discovery in 2023 of significant trafficking in residence permits within the prefecture, which led to a complete reorganization”recalls Ms. Faure Saint-Aman.

For the Defender of Rights, there is now “emergency” to act against these difficulties: “We are not saying that the procedure cannot be dematerialized but the necessary support is needed,” believes Ms. Hédon.