’Living in fear’: The plight of France’s undocumented workers

FRANCE 24 English

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00:00 They're speaking up for the first time. These six undocumented migrants were hired by a

00:05 construction firm promising to help them stay in France legally. Almost all of them worked

00:11 on large hotels and office buildings for over three years, enough to qualify for a residency

00:16 permit under a proposed new law. To avoid the extra cost of a soon-to-be legal workforce,

00:22 their employer pressured them and several of their colleagues to resign.

00:28 Builders that hire undocumented workers are worried that that source of labour will dry

00:32 up. They're concerned that these foreign workers will get the rights to work legally, and asked

00:38 to have their rights respected.

00:41 These builders turned to France's large and powerful left-wing trade union, the CGT, for

00:46 help.

00:47 That is not a good saw. We pay the price. We get injured.

00:52 That's how we carry them from the ground floor to the sixth floor. 90 kilos. That's how I

00:57 ruined my back. I lifted over 28 doors. After two days I felt a pain here. It's over.

01:06 This injury happened on the construction site. I was carrying something heavy and I tripped

01:11 and I hurt myself. When you get injured on site, they tell you not to say that it happened

01:15 on the job. You have to pay your own medical bills out of pocket.

01:22 These workers are like cannon fodder. Some employers who are unable to fill their vacancies

01:27 legally actively go looking for undocumented people to hire. But the working conditions

01:32 are so bad, and the pay is so low that even they don't want to do it. And other businesses

01:38 look to hire these workers simply because it boosts their profit margins.

01:47 Escaping abusive labour conditions is a high-stakes gamble. The clandestine workers could be given

01:53 leave to remain in France legally or they could be deported. While some workers are

01:57 hired using their real names, others must lease someone else's identity to the tune

02:03 of several hundred euros a month. Moussa fled jihadist violence in Mali a decade ago, but

02:09 his asylum application wasn't successful.

02:13 To work, instead of stealing to survive, I paid for someone else's identity. He is here

02:18 legally. You get everything photocopied, including the social security card and residency permit.

02:23 I pay 30 percent of my salary to use his identity. If I earn 1400, I get 900 euros and he keeps

02:30 the rest.

02:32 Since 2013, he's gone through four aliases. To avoid being I.D. checked by police, he

02:37 rarely goes outside, except for food and work.

02:43 Since coming here, I've not had a moment's peace. I've been living in fear for ten years.

02:48 I dress well, I carry myself well, like an ordinary person. I don't dress like a thug.

02:53 It's the only thing I have control over.

02:55 Back home in Mali, Moussa studied law, but now he's a rubbish collector in the greater

03:00 Paris suburbs. Around half of his 30 colleagues are in France illegally.

03:07 It's not written on your forehead that you don't have papers. When you're undocumented,

03:11 you don't get paid holidays or unemployment benefits. You can work up to ten hours a day.

03:17 Employers see the advantages. You're always available for work and they always need you

03:21 to work.

03:23 Because his pay slips and tax returns aren't in his name, he had to ask his employer for

03:27 a certificate proving that he'd been working there for several years.

03:32 I need to have my true identity recognized and work legally. Some employers ask for money.

03:36 Mine wanted 6000 euros.

03:40 Undocumented women are often cleaners. Marie cleans public and private buildings non-stop

03:45 from four in the morning to ten o'clock at night every day. This charity explained to

03:50 her that without a paper trail, her past five years of work aren't enough to grant her residency

03:55 in France.

03:57 They did it on purpose. There's lots of cleaning ladies who aren't here legally. If you don't

04:01 have papers, being a cleaner is pretty much the only job you can do. Daycare centers,

04:06 social services and offices, no workplace can function without us cleaning ladies.

04:11 The charity L'Assimade helps over 100,000 people a year and has noticed a stark difference

04:17 in how some newcomers are welcomed.

04:22 Ukrainians are treated well in France. We want all foreigners to be treated like this.

04:34 Solicitor Jean-Albert Guido has taken on the case of two Brazilian cleaners who never got

04:39 payslips and whose employer stopped paying them. The mother and daughter duo were often

04:43 together, doing work that was physically gruelling.

04:49 I worked 12 to 15 hours a day. She never offered me water or food. My mother worked until her

04:58 fingers bled.

05:04 There were days when we couldn't buy food. When I arrived here, I didn't have winter

05:09 clothes. I scavenged through rubbish bins to find some. It's very tough.

05:16 We left our country for a better life. And instead, we went through hell.

05:25 To get the work permit, unauthorized workers must be in industries with labor shortages

05:30 and not all jobs will count.

05:36 The jobs that currently qualify are skilled work. But less skilled trades aren't mentioned.

05:43 Woodworkers and unskilled construction workers aren't on the list. There's no shortage

05:49 of cleaners, kitchen clerks or dishwashers. So they aren't included either. The irony

05:56 is, of course, that these people are migrant workers and that's why there's no shortage.

06:03 As many as a million people in France are undocumented workers. And local authorities

06:10 currently have the power to grant or deny eligible workers legal right to remain in

06:15 France at their discretion.

06:17 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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