Police officers are used to receiving contradictory orders or rulings, but a few days after the President of the Republic promised to exercise caution on immigration, it is difficult to deal with the news. On Sunday morning, August 22, the Interior Ministry’s instructions were clear: the national police must issue “micas” to five Afghans as soon as they enter French territory, according to the Border Police (PAF). Four arrived on Sunday, the last one on Sunday evening.
What is a ” micas “? An individual measure of administrative control and surveillance that refers to house arrest imposed to prevent the potential committing of terrorist acts. This measure is one of those that has often been used in the past.
The surveillance, a costly affair, will be charged to the French taxpayers.
One Afghan particularly caught the attention of the authorities: “even if this person greatly assisted in the evacuation of the French embassy, we believe that he may be linked to the Taliban.” explained French Minister of the Interior Gerald Darmanin to AFP.
This man admitted his membership to the movement and admitted having carried arms as the person in charge of a Taliban roadblock in Kabul. “Faced with the extremely strong difficulties of being able to carry out security checks on the persons to be repatriated”, the French authorities “have agreed to take this person and his family”, added the minister.
Upon his arrival in France this weekend, he was notified to MICAS, as were three of his relatives “for the time being not directly suspected”. As for the fifth man, “we saw after a DGSI investigation that he had links with these people although he had come separately”, said the minister.
When the flight arrived in Abu Dhabi, the Directorate General of Internal Surveillance (DGSI) “did the job it could not do in Kabul” by conducting security interviews, Darmanin said. “I have not had other feedback from the DGSI” as to other nationals who may be affected by such measures, he added. “However, we are extremely careful”.
“The government must explain to the French what would prevent these individuals from being expelled in absolute urgency,” said Xavier Bertrand, right-wing presidential candidate, on Twitter.