The United Nations special rapporteur on racism has warned that France's new immigration bill violates the country's constitutional commitment to equality and freedom.
"When we look at the French constitution or the way in which the head of state or many in positions of power speak, it is equality, but the new legislation is in strong contradiction to these policies”, said Ashwini KP, the UN’s special rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.
The bill, backed by far-right lawmakers, would include restrictions on immigrants, remove birthright citizenship and make it easier to strip someone of their French nationality if they commit a crime.
KP Ashwini, who began working as a UN special rapporteur last November, expressed particular concern about the proposed restrictions on social benefits for migrants, as well as increased fees for foreign students, saying these measures would “impact marginalized communities”.
A hotly contested immigration bill violates France's constitutional commitment to equality and freedom, the United Nations special rapporteur on racism has insisted, amid nationwide protests against the law, which is due to be considered in France's Constitutional Council on Thursday.
The French president has placed this bill in his second term of office and has defended its approval in parliament, but the support he received from the far-right party of Marine Le Pen has consequences for him, and he has sent this law to the French Constitutional Council for review.
The bill also includes barriers to family reunification and delays in immigrants' access to welfare benefits, as well as provisions that would abolish automatic birthright citizenship and make it easier to deport non-French nationals.
The UN special rapporteur on racism said he hopes the French Constitutional Council will reform the law.
Ashwini K.P. said she would focus on discrimination in France this year, given the influence of far-right groups there, incidents such as the police shooting last year of a teenager of North African descent that prompted nationwide riots, and discrimination against Muslim women wearing the hijab.