{"id":12539,"date":"2014-02-14T10:54:05","date_gmt":"2014-02-14T10:54:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/retiree-stripped-of-french-citizenship-over\/"},"modified":"2014-02-14T10:53:54","modified_gmt":"2014-02-14T10:53:54","slug":"retiree-stripped-of-french-citizenship-over","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/retiree-stripped-of-french-citizenship-over\/","title":{"rendered":"Retiree Stripped of French Citizenship Over Technicality"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/figure>\n

{{Sikhou Camara was naturalized a French citizen in 1966. Yet the recent discovery of a minute administrative error made 45 years ago means that he and his family may suddenly be re-classified as immigrants.}}<\/p>\n

Born in Senegal in 1945, Camara obtained French citizenship in the French town of Rouen in 1966. In 1986, he received routine confirmation of his nationality. <\/p>\n

Ten years later, Camara requested French nationality for his wife under the French law which states that the spouse of a French citizen can request citizenship after at least four years of marriage.<\/p>\n

Suddenly finicky, the judge examining Camara\u2019s file unearthed a legal flaw from his naturalization process. Camara had been granted French nationality when he was 20 years old, though the legal age at the time was 21.<\/p>\n

Because of this technicality, Camara was told that his wife was not eligible for citizenship. Moreover, his youngest children, who were born outside of France, would be denied the habitual French \u201cdroit de sang,\u201d or rights to citizenship by descent.<\/p>\n

This was disheartening news for Camara and his family, to say the least, yet he was given no reason over the next 15 years to worry about his own status.<\/p>\n

Finally, in 2012, he decided to make a second attempt to seek citizenship for his wife. This time, he hired a lawyer.<\/p>\n

In September, Camara received a shocking letter from his local prefecture, Seine-Maritime, stating that he \u201cno longer held French nationality.\u201d Even more frighteningly, the letter stated that if he failed to render his now void identity documents immediately to the prefecture, his name would be added to a list of \u201cwanted persons.\u201d<\/p>\n

The letter also offered him a \u201ctitre de s\u00e9jour,\u201d a temporary residence permit.
\nCamara refused the offer.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a legal problem, not an immigration problem\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy father is French. Question his nationality and you are questioning his very identity,\u201d said Sikhou Camara\u2019s son, Bakary. \u201cThis is a legal problem and not an immigration problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s as if, suddenly, French citizenship can be temporary. Being forced to justify your nationality when you are 68-years-old is a humiliation.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an interview with {france24}, Bakary highlighted that the Camara family\u2019s ties to France are not new but part of a deep-rooted colonial legacy.<\/p>\n

Sikhou Camara was born in Senegal when it was still a French colony. Sikhou\u2019s father served in the French navy.<\/p>\n

Sikhou arrived by boat in the French town of Bordeaux in the early 1960s and went immediately to Rouen, where one of his uncles already lived. He settled there, working as a welder for 40 years.<\/p>\n

Sikhou\u2019s story was not unusual for those born in former French colonies.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn those days, coming to France (from the colonies) was comparable to someone from the countryside moving to Paris,\u201d Bakary said.<\/p>\n

Bakary refers to the questions swirling around his father\u2019s identity as \u201ca judicial injustice\u201d and \u201ca crime against the social contract.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bakary says his father was a loyal citizen. Sikhou voted in each election, paid his taxes and raised his 13 children with republican values. <\/p>\n

One of his daughters is now studying medicine at the University of Rouen, while another is studying engineering in the French town of Lyon. One of his sons is a policeman. <\/p>\n

Yet Sikhou\u2019s youngest children \u2013 who were born in Senegal and thus inherited their French citizenship through their father \u2013 are also at risk of losing their French nationality.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have never thought of myself as an immigrant but suddenly I find myself with this status,\u201d said Bakary.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cI live in France, I am French. I\u2019ve resolved this problem; it\u2019s France that still hasn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

{{Not the first time}}<\/p>\n

Sikhou Camara is not the first person in Rouen to find himself in this unpleasant situation. In 2007, the Roeun tribunal questioned the nationality of a man named Ounoussou Guiss\u00e9, who was also born in Senegal but gained French citizenship at birth through his French father. <\/p>\n

The tribunal once again focused on a minute detail, claiming that at the time of Senegal\u2019s independence from France (1960), Guiss\u00e9\u2019s father\u2019s civil residence was in France but his principal residence was in Senegal.<\/p>\n

This examination into Guiss\u00e9\u2019s citizenship is even more shocking considering that Guiss\u00e9 served as a brigadier in the 1st Parachute Hussar Regiment, fighting for France in both Chad and Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

In an open letter, Bakary Camara asked for the government to put into place ideas drafted in memorandum on immigration written in March 2010 by French Interior Minister Manuel Valls alongside Justice Minister Christiane Taubira.<\/p>\n

The two ministers suggested a \u201csimplification process\u201d for renewing passports and other identity cards, that would get rid of \u201coften superfluous processes that are perceived by those in question (those born outside of France or born to non-French parents) as a governmental questioning of their nationality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bakary wants to prevent his father and other people in the same situation from having to undergo \u201cthe humiliation of having to justify their place in the national community every ten years.\u201d<\/p>\n

{{Trapped}}<\/p>\n

Sikhou Camara dreamed of a peaceful retirement with the possibility of travelling frequently between his home in France, and his friends and family in Senegal, enjoying the freedom of movement available to any French citizen.<\/p>\n

But with his passport set to expire in two months and the prefecture\u2019s refusal to renew his documents, he will no longer be able to travel.<\/p>\n

To put an end to what he calls \u201cadministrative persecution,\u201d Sikhou Camara is going to court to prove his nationality, this time in front of the district court of Lille.<\/p>\n

Unbowed, Camara told television station France 3, \u201cif the state made a mistake, it\u2019s up to them to fix it. I\u2019m not the one who is going to suffer the consequences.\u201d
\nThe court will rule on March 8.<\/p>\n

{france24}<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{{Sikhou Camara was naturalized a French citizen in 1966. Yet the recent discovery of a minute administrative error made 45 years ago means that he and his family may suddenly be re-classified as immigrants.}} Born in Senegal in 1945, Camara obtained French citizenship in the French town of Rouen in 1966. In 1986, he received […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2000050348,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[100],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-12539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","tag-africa","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":{"id":2000050348,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton12539.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton12539.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton12539.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton12539.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton12539.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton12539.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12539\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000050348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12539"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=12539"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=12539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}