Salah lifts his T-shirt and pulls up his pants to show his wounds: large scars mark his body, traces of what the militias of the terrorist group al-Shabaab, which are rampaging in his country of Somalia, inflicted on him. This is the reason that made him flee from it and found himself here in Besançon in Franche Comté, after wandering around the Porte de La Chapelle in Paris for more than three years. Salah, who was granted asylum in May 2022, boarded one of the many buses leaving for the regions on October 27 as part of a prefectural “accommodation operation” without being able to choose his destination. But he is apparently fine: the man has found the security he has been looking for for a long time and would not return to the capital for anything in the world.
On this October day, almost 1,000 people were at the Porte de La Chapelle, the migrants had given themselves the word to make a fresh start. In the end, 634 people were cared for, 406 of them referred to the regions. Direction Doubs for 20 of them according to the prefecture of this department. Two got off the bus on the way and only three are still in the premises of Adoma, the structure that manages these arrivals in Besançon, on February 23, the day we meet Salah.
Distribute migrants to regions
“Paris really had too many problems. Every day the police chased us away. I didn’t feel safe,” says this 37-year-old man, who explains that his headphones were stolen and that he witnessed many fights. “Paris is the same as Mogadishu [la capitale de la Somalie]. Even if I got a building I wouldn’t go back! Or I want to go there to visit French history museum [il parle du musée Carnavalet]. Salah says he received a ticket to the museum when he signed his Republican integration treaty that comes with being granted asylum.
Salah’s situation is an example of the distribution policy promoted and encouraged by the government, which is part of the national program for the reception of asylum seekers and refugees, “which aims to reduce the burden of receiving and housing asylum seekers between Ile-de- France and other French regions,” explains the General Directorate for Foreigners in France. Operations that serve both to distribute migrants between regions and to clear public roads, such as Christophe Noël Du Payrat, chief of staff of the prefecture of the Ile-de-France region , admits: “If you see that you have to intervene because a camp is getting bigger and more complicated, we prepare an operation. We ask the national level to identify places in the different regions. We decide on a day of operation and reserve Buses with water and sandwiches. »
“We don’t know who we’re hosting. We start from scratch »
Housing for asylum seekers is particularly busy in the capital, because it is a “gateway” and also because the prefecture “is no longer necessarily finding space in hotels or available land,” explains Christophe Noel Du Payrat. Even if, when war broke out, the state had no problem accommodating thousands of Ukrainians in a jiffy… The fact remains that the government has planned to create 4,500 places in reception centers outside the Ile-de-France in 2021, just around the to relieve the capital region. According to our information, ten reception and orientation gates will soon be built in ten French regions, which will have to receive 600 migrants every month in the run-up to the Olympic Games (see our article on this topic).
The Adoma team in Besançon managed five “shelters” in 2022, more commonly referred to as “dismantling” or “loosening” by social workers. “The bus arrives around 4:30 p.m. We only know how many people there will be. We don’t know who to welcome. We are starting from scratch,” explains Sébastien Deprez, Deputy Territorial Director at Adoma. Who continues: “When people arrive they are very tired, we let them rest the first evening. We distribute a hygiene kit and a food package and tell them where they are and how we support them. The next day we check whether there are any health problems. Some go to the Red Cross. They wash. If we give them a lockable room, that’s huge for them. »
One of the reception centers for migrants in Besançon. – Aude Loriaux
93% of the asylum seekers in the region are accommodated
Then her new life begins. For Salah, it basically consists of French lessons four days a week. Migrants who are granted asylum can receive up to 600 hours of instruction, and almost three-quarters apply for it. The rest of the time Salah plays football, drinks coffee in Battant, one of the oldest neighborhoods in the city of Besançon, socially and historically close to Barbès in Paris. He enrolls in Pole Emploi, receives the RSA, saves to Norway, a country he had a crush on (“it’s super safe,” he enthuses), but which refuses him asylum. “I’ve been waiting three and a half years to be able to leave Paris and have a place to start and move forward in life,” says Salah, who feels safe in Besançon: “It’s super quiet here! And that is the most important. »
Sébastien Deprez knows that most people who arrive in Besançon will stay there. “It’s more comfortable than in Paris and the conditions for professional or social integration or housing seem more favorable to me,” says the Adoma area manager. In fact, 93% of asylum seekers are housed in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté versus 30% in Ile-de-France. Here we are surrounded, whether we have received asylum or not, and the prefecture meets every week with the town hall, the French Office for Immigration and Integration, associations and the various structures supporting migrants and refugees to deal with difficult situations in a to be examined on a case-by-case basis. “We have a real associative fabric that we know how to promote and link to government services,” explains Sébastien Deprez. “In Besançon we all work well with the prefecture,” confirms Philippe Crémer, municipal councilor in charge of welcoming the homeless and supporting migrants.
“Here I do sports and go to school a lot”
This system also benefited Shafiullah, a migrant who arrived in Besançon in July 2021 after passing through Gare du Nord and La Chapelle, and notably through Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, Slovenia and Italy . He received us in his small room with faded walls in the Besançon reception center. He makes us wait a bit, time to admire a Spider-Man watch, and returns with a Monster Energy – an energy drink – and a tomato and cilantro omelette, an Afghan speciality. Afghan hospitality is no joke. “I don’t eat anything in the morning, but you’re here,” he joins in with a smile and, for lack of a table, sits on the floor with the frying pan that contains the food.
The food prepared by Shafiullah. – Aude Loriaux
When asked if he likes Besançon, he doesn’t hesitate for a second: “It’s peaceful and beautiful. Here I walk a lot, do sports and go to school a lot. La Chapelle had a lot of problems,” explains Shafiullah, who is very keen on learning French well and is happy to type the discussion for better practice. He goes to Secours Catholique classes every day, “I have classes on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays,” he tells us, and even on Mondays thanks to the Les restos du cœur association.
Shafiullah’s application was denied and he is awaiting the outcome of his appeal to the National Asylum Court. If she is rejected, he must go home. If accepted, Adoma has three months to get him out of the system and help him sail alone. “I want my children to go to school here. My wife stays at home with the children, nobody goes to school, it’s the Taliban, he complains. And you can’t argue with the ladies, the police are coming. We say goodbye to Shafiullah and enjoy the pleasure of being able to discuss freely.