French pupils stranded in Ghana

Three French pupils are now stranded in Ghana following the seizure of their passports by their country’s embassy in Accra .

Ismail Sinare, age 10; Rime Sinare, and age 6; and Sarah Sinare, and age 4 (with French Passports, Numbers 09AI79877, issued on March 10, 2009; 09AP60363 issued on March 30, 2009; and 09AI77519 issued on March 10, 2009, respectively), who were on holiday in Accra with their father, had their passports seized when they went to the French Embassy in Accra to formally inform it of their presence in Ghana.

A French Embassy, Accra-Ghana letter of August 19, 2010 , signed by the charge d’affaires Bernard Botte, also informed the Sinare children that their citizenship registration documents (CNIS No. 0903667801505 for Ismail Sinare; CNIS No. 090467800334 for Rime Sinare; and, CNIS No. 090367801501 for Sarah Sinare) had similarly been withdrawn. They were subsequently advised by the embassy to apply for Ghanaian passports, instead. Ismail, born at Aarau, Canton d’Argovie (Switzerland); Rime, born at Belfort; and Sarah, born at Strasbourg (Bas-Rhin) are the children of Gamel Sinare, a Ghanaian national, and his French wife of Moroccan extraction, the late Madame Rachida Laamiri Sinare, who died on March 1, 2008.

As a result of the embassy’s action, the three French citizens, all pupils of the Joie de Vivre private school in Strasbourg are now stranded in Accra and cannot resume classes when their school re-opens first week of September. When contacted, the French embassy in Accra said the documents had been seized as a “protective measure”.

In a written response to our e-mail enquiry, signed by the embassy’s charge d’affaires Botte, it said the Sinare children, who had first approached the embassy on August 16 on the citizenship issue, were presumed not to be French because “the act of naturalization of the late mother of the children, dated June 4, 2008, had been revoked by another act published on March 19, 2009, so that the children were not supposed to be French either. The French passports and CNIS were delivered nine days before this publication for Ismail Sinare and Sarah Sinare, and eleven and fourteen days after, respectively (sic) for Rime Sinare, which explains that the revocation was not taken into account in these documents.” But Mr. Sinare said he was helpless, however, as so far as no reason has been advanced as to why his late wife’s French citizenship was purportedly revoked, or to why such should have any effect on his children’s status. He lamented that since the children were neither born in Ghana nor have Ghanaian-issued birth certificates, they cannot explore the alternative of applying for Ghanaian citizenship, meaning they have now been rendered stateless.

Signaling a cynical turn to the authoritarian right, President Nicolas Sarkozy’s government last month expelled thousands of Roma people who are fellow European Union (EU) citizens from Bulgaria and Romania . Just before that, French police were caught on video brutalizing pregnant African female immigrants in Paris . The immigrant families had set up camp in front of the flats from which they had earlier been expelled in July this year.

The video showed a pregnant African woman screaming as she was dragged away by police. Another woman, a baby strapped to her back, was dragged along the ground by police officers.

The incident amplified a noisy campaign of hardline measures by Sarkozy to revive his image as a politician tough on crime and immigration. The French president believes there is a direct connection between immigration and crime and that France was "suffering the consequences of 50 years of insufficiently regulated immigration". With less than two years to the next presidential election, Sarkozy would love to switch the national debate from the economy and political scandals to crime and punishment. If the left criticises his proposals too loudly, he will accuse them of being soft on crime.

France has a murky history of racial hatred. The Vichy governemnt officials proved all too willing to identify their Jewish citizens and shipping them off to the death camps, knowing full well what fate awaited them. While individual French citizens proved to be very courageous in fighting the nazis as part of resistance, the government was a willing tool of the facists both German and French. After the war, General Charles deGaulle gave specific instructions for the 'blacks' to be excluded in the French War Victory Parade, the very blacks who gave their lives to fight for France .