(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar)
With its final vote on 23 October 2007, the French Parliament confirmed the introduction of DNA testing in the new immigration law to prove family links for foreign candidates applying for a more than 3 months visa on family regrouping grounds. The only recourse could now be a decision from the French Constitutional Council to remove this provision from the law, since the Parliamentary opposition (Socialists, Communists and Greens), together with some centrist members of Parliament, announced that it would challenge the adopted law before the Constitutional judge.
The final vote occurred after a Parliamentary Commission agreed on the harmonisation of the draft texts resulting from both the National Assembly and the Senate. With respect to DNA testing provision as initially adopted by the National Assembly, some modifications occurred in order to answer to some of the criticisms. Main changes are: the DNA tests will be paid by the French government and not anymore made at the expenses of the visa applicant; the biological family links would be checked against the mother's DNA to avoid unexpected, possibly dramatic revelations in the family; the need for the test should be authorised by a civil court; informed consent from concerned persons should be expressly collected; the whole provision is now declared as experimental, and will be revised after the end of year 2009.
However, these changes have by no mean satisfied the numerous opponents of this provision, as their demand remains that DNA testing should not be used to check family links, since such links cannot be reduced to blood relation. More than 280 000 persons, including personalities from all political parties, signed a petition, and thousands of people participated in street demonstrations in many French cities on 20 October against this provision.
Many observers commenting this provision, including in foreign countries, referred to practices from the Nazi occupation period. An editorial by the New-York Times even reminded that 'immigration issues bring out the worst instincts in politicians', while Republican presidential candidate Tom Tancredo has recently introduced a similar bill in U.S. House, as press agencies have reported. French opinion seem however divided: according to a poll made on 18-19 October 2007, only 45% of the 1000 asked persons find the provision to be "against French society values", while 49% considers DNA testing "as a good measure since it allows to check if family visa applicants are indeed members of the same family".
The French Constitutional Council will decide upon the challenged law within one month after the challenge is filed, which is expected to happen immediately after the vote of 23 October.
In addition to DNA testing, the draft law introduced further use of biometrics against foreigners, without much debate. Article 62 of the adopted law requires that the beneficiaries of financial support (foreigners voluntarily returning home) have their photograph and digital fingerprints taken and stored in yet another database. This provision has been introduced with the claim that it would help fighting frauds in case these persons come back to stay again in France.
In an analysis published on 24 October French EDRI member IRIS highlights how this provision, in the same way as the DNA testing and former biometric databases set-up, is part of the general strategy and managerial logic based on the rationalization of processes and procedures, leading to the fundamental transformation of a conception of society once based on mutual trust into a situation of generalized suspicion.
EDRI-gram: DNA Tests Proposed In France For Family Visa Applicants
(26.09.2007)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number5.18/dna-test-france-visa
Petition against DNA tests (only in French, launched on 03.10.2007)
http://www.touchepasamonadn.com
Thousands of people have demonstrated against the immigration project and
DNA tests (only in French, 21.10.2007)
http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-3224,36-969450@51-959910,0.h...
The New-York Times: 'Pseudoscientific Bigotry in France' (21.10.2007)
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/21/opinion/21sun2.html
AP: 'DNA Test of Immigrants Sought' (16.10.2007)
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IMMIGRANTS_DNA
49% of the French for a DNA test for family regroupment (only in French,
23.10.2007)
http://www.liberation.fr/actualite/reuters/reuters_france/286596.FR.ph...
IRIS: 'Immigration: yet another biometric "detail"' (only in French,
24.10.2007)
http://www.iris.sgdg.org/actions/fichiers/biometrie-retour1007.html
(Contribution by Meryem Marzouki, EDRI member IRIS - France)