In early June 2022 state officials signed an order obliging an Algerian doctor who has been working in France for seven years to leave the country within 30 days. This order was finally annulled by a court at the end of September but while he waits for a new visa to be issued the doctor is still prevented from working. Meanwhile his prolonged absence hastened the closure of cancer ward beds at the hospital where he was an intern. Camille Polloni reports.
“We must now be tough with the bad guys and nice to the good guys.” That is the line recently announced by France's minister of the interior, Gérald Darmanin, who has been churning out statements against “foreign criminals”, and promising to “make life impossible” for anyone who is the subject of an official order requiring them to leave the country. These orders are known in French as an 'obligation de quitter le territoire français' or 'OQTF'.
