Friday February 15, a young Kenyan of 19, John Maïna, hanged himself in his apartment in Meudon just after receiving the final rejection of his asylum request.
John preferred to die here rather than be sent back to his home country where he feared a horrible death. The civil war in Kenya has already claimed more than 1,000 lives and displaced more than 300,000 people.
This death is on top of too many others. The policy of disposable immigration, the policy of an almost forbidden right of asylum, the policy of “numbers” kills. How many more dead and broken lives will it take?
We refuse that John died for nothing. It would be legitimate for John to receive, symbolically and posthumously, the right of asylum in France. The policy pursued today is unworthy. It’s time to change it!
FIRST SIGNATORIES
Stéphane Hessel (Ambassador of France), Olivier Brès (pastor, secretary general of the Fédération de l’Entraide Protestante), Jean-Pierre Rives (pastor, national secretary of the People’s Evangelical Mission), Stéphane Lavignotte (pastor of the People’s Evangelical Mission ), Jacques Gaillot, Richard Moyon (RESF), Jean Michel Delarbre (RESF), Maurice Rajsfus (historian), Jean Pierre Thorn (filmmaker), Marie Christine Volovitch Tavarès (historian), Anne Hugon (historian), Catherine Marro (historian) , Gilles Manceron (historian), Matthias Millet (sociologist), Loïc Wacquant (sociologist), Albert Jacquard (geneticist), Xavier Rognon (geneticist), François Bouillon (president of the FSU Research Institute), Jérôme Valluy (academic ), Alain Chaptal (professor at Paris VIII University),Françoise Balibar (Pierre and Marie Curie university professor), David Chovel (screenwriter, editor), Tatiana Morozov (president of the Montgolfière association), Michell Belletante (director of a theater company, professor at ENSATT), Gilles Chavassieux (director from the theater Les Ateliers), Mano Solo, Josiane Balasko, Valérie Lang, Gregoire Simon (les Têtes raides), Miguel Benasayag, Patrick Chamoiseau (writer), Karine Tuil (writer), Christine Van de Putte (writer), Catherine Romat (author) of children’s books), Jean-Philippe Peyraud (designer), Antonio Gallego (visual artist), Lilian Thuram (footballer), Stéphane Diagana (athlete), Jean Pierre Dubois (president of the LDH), Catherine Teule (LDH), Pierre Barge (LDH), Mouloud Aounit (president of MRAP), Nathalie Ferré (president of GISTI), Thibault Lemière (president of FASTI),Christophe Tronel (president of Autremonde), Aurélie Found and Jean-Marie Harribey (co-presidents of ATTAC), Susan Georges (honorary president of ATTAC), Bernard Cassen (honorary president of ATTAC), Jean -Baptiste Eyraud (DAL), Jean-Claude Amara (spokesperson for Droits Devant!), Annick Coupé (spokesperson for Solidaires), Pierre Khalfa (national secretary of the Union syndicale Solidaires), Hélène Franco (general secretary of the Syndicat de the Magistrature), Laurence Mollaret (vice-president of the Syndicat de la Magistrature), Emmanuelle Perreux (president of the Syndicat de la Magistrature), Régine Barthelemy (president of the Syndicat des Avocats de France), Dalila Meziane (lawyer at the Algiers Bar, Laureate of the Ludovic Trarieux International Human Rights Prize, Francine Blanche (secretary of the CGT),Gérard Aschieri (general secretary of FSU), Jean Baptiste Prévots (president of UNEF), Richard Beraud (general secretary of FERC CGT), Jacques Gurfinkiel (CGT general secretary of Opac de Paris), Raymond Chauveau (secretary general of the local union Cgt Massy), Serge Chabrol (secretary general of the SNEP FSU), Jacques Rouyer (president of the EPS and Society center), Claude Hénon (Sud-Education), Sékou Diabate (IACD president), Mouhedine Cherbi (president of the FTCR), Sevinç MERT (president of ACORT), Muharrem KOC (President of RACORT), Fouzia Maqsoud (president of the ATMF), Tarek Ben Hiba (FTCR), Jean Brafman, Mylène Stambouli (lawyer, ADDE, GISTI), Saddock Guittoun (CSP92), Jean Yves Barrère (CSP92), Miguel Segui (RESF92), Geneviève Azam (economist, Attac), Claude Calame (Director of studies at EHESS), Catherine Samary (economist),Albert Fert (2007 Nobel Prize in Physics), Mireille Bruyère (LIRHE-CNRS), Michel Husson (economist), Khadidja Attou (PhD in political science), Roselyne Rochereau (University of Caen), François Chesnais (economist), Thomas Coutrot ( economist), Nils Andersson (co-president of the Association for the Defense of International Humanitarian Law), Albert Richez, Fabienne Messica, Cedetim (sociologist), Sonia Fayman (sociologist), Jacques Cossart (economist), Véronique Gallais (socio-economist) ), Marguerite Rollinde (researcher Paris 8), Louis Weber (Savoir / Agir review)Nils Andersson (co-president of the Association for the Defense of International Humanitarian Law), Albert Richez, Fabienne Messica, Cedetim (sociologist), Sonia Fayman (sociologist), Jacques Cossart (economist), Véronique Gallais (socio-economist), Marguerite Rollinde (Paris 8 researcher), Louis Weber (Savoir / Agir review)Nils Andersson (co-president of the Association for the Defense of International Humanitarian Law), Albert Richez, Fabienne Messica, Cedetim (sociologist), Sonia Fayman (sociologist), Jacques Cossart (economist), Véronique Gallais (socio-economist), Marguerite Rollinde (Paris 8 researcher), Louis Weber (Savoir / Agir review)