Paris, Europe Brief News – The French paper Le Monde has shed light on the undocumented workers’ dilemma in France and the difficulties they face in their daily life.
They are labourers, dishwashers, nannies or housekeepers. They work without rights amid hope for a better future where rules are relaxed for the so-called “in tension” professions, the paper describes the undocumented workers.
27-year-old Guinean Ousmane Bangoura, an undocumented worker, said that he want that all French people to realize that he works on construction sites, and he sometimes returns home at night “with swollen arms” because he “contributes to building” France.
They think that we don’t know the values or we are unemployed. But I came here to work, he said.
Ousmane Bangoura, from Guinea Conakry, has lived in France for five years. Since his arrival, he has worked without papers in the construction sites.
Since he arrived in 2017, Ousmane did not stop working even during confinement. However, he only has one payslip, which corresponds to a few days in a sorting factory in Maine-et-Loire, in 2019. Several bosses have promised to give his rights, but none have kept the word.
“It’s not their business, I get a maximum of 50 euros a day,” he says.
The young man, whom he met through the Catholic Relief Service’s Assistance Center for Asylum Seekers and Refugees, feels both “discouraged” and “outraged” at being “exploited on building sites” in a country to which he shares “sincere love”.
He cannot overcome this situation while his irregular administrative situation keeps him idly. Without payslips, he cannot claim regularization. The Valls circular of 2012 provides the possibility of “exceptional admission to residence” for employees who obtained between eight and twenty-four payslips and an employment promise, after three to five years of his arrival in France.
Sigh of relief
The government has earlier announced that it wants to relax these rules for “jobs in tension”, such as construction, agriculture or catering. If he had papers, Ousmane Bangoura would have “a normal life, like everyone else”. He could find another accommodation other than the room he rents for £350 a month in Val-d’Oise. He could also find a better job. “When I see RATP announcements, it breaks my heart,” says the former bus driver.
The 35-year-old Malian Sidibe Sambanou, who lives in Seine-et-Marne, also looks at the laborer job offers on the Indeed search site. Regularly, he is solicited by SMS or email. His CV is interesting. He knows how to mount concrete blocks, lay joints, parquet, tiles, do mortar, plaster, paint… “I like construction, I can be a team leader”, he says.
Sidibe has many photos on his phone from all the construction sites he has worked on since he arrived in France in October 2018. Scrolling through them, he comes across a photo of his father while receiving the labor medal awarded in 2005,by France.
