It’s been two days since Boris Lojkine’s film, “The Story of Souleymane”, has been showing in many cinemas in France. And if we still do not know the number of entries that the film has accumulated, there is no doubt that many spectators will come to see Abou Sangaré, this young unknown Guinean actor, who nevertheless won the Male Actor Prize in the “section Un certain regard” at the Cannes Film Festival. However, in the eyes of the administration, he remains an undocumented immigrant under OQTF.
At 23, Abou Sangaré plays an undocumented deliveryman in Boris Lojkine’s film. A role that is not entirely compositional since, although he is not a delivery man, the young Guinean knows perfectly well what it means to be in an irregular situation in France. He has been experiencing this situation since his arrival on the territory in 2017, even if it is not for lack of having tried to obtain a residence permit.
A “legally” effective OQTF
He has already submitted three applications for a residence permit, all of which were refused. So Abou Sangaré tried his luck again, Thursday, with the Somme prefecture where his case must be investigated. But if he received the regulatory “receipt”, the piece of paper does not grant him a reprieve from remaining on French territory, as the prefect of the department clarified on Thursday. “A receipt does not constitute a residence permit if the person has a valid OQTF,” explains 20 Minutes Me Grégoire Hervet, lawyer at the Paris bar specializing in foreigners’ law. According to him, even if Abou Sangaré appealed about his OQTF, “it is not suspensive”.
Because the young man is indeed subject to an obligation to leave French territory, an OQTF. The prefecture also recalled that this OQTF was “validated by the Amiens administrative court last July” and that it remains “legally” in force.
Basically, therefore, if Abou Sangaré is stopped in the street, the police can take him directly to a detention center with a view to his expulsion. However, the prefect affirms that the young man’s new request “will be subject to in-depth examination” without commenting on the outcome of this examination.
