2023-12-29 16:22:25
The CGT speaks of a “roundup”. Around ten undocumented delivery men working for platforms were arrested this week in Isère and ordered to leave the territory during a control operation. Simultaneous operations targeted delivery men on Wednesday evening in Grenoble, Voiron and Vienne, and Algerian, Burkinabé, Guinean and Tunisian nationals were arrested, according to the national police.
Placed in police custody in Grenoble and Lyon, they were released after being notified of obligations to leave French territory (OQTF) and bans on returning to the territory (IRTF), declared Mohamed Fofana, CGT official. delivery men in Isère during a press point on Friday in Grenoble.
“We denounce this police operation”
“We denounce this police operation (…) during a holiday period when migrant defense associations and many lawyers are on leave and appeals are complicated,” he said. “We are workers, not delinquents,” he added, recalling that many delivery men work in precarious conditions and for “scandalously low pay”.
“Place Victor-Hugo (in Grenoble) was completely closed by police trucks. It was a trap. It’s called a raid when it targets a particular category of people,” said an official of the local CGT union, Alain Lavi.
The elected officials #Grenoble en Commun are present at the rally organized by the CGT38 in support of bicycle delivery workers who have suffered police checks, arrests and repression against precarious workers. So that they can live with dignity and without fear. pic.twitter.com/XBs7dHc0XC
— Grenoble en Commun (@Grenoble_Commun) December 29, 2023
Several of the arrested delivery men testified to their incomprehension and their “fear”. “We feel persecuted, we are not safe,” said one of them, speaking on condition of anonymity. Their bikes, their “work tools”, were seized, they lamented.
“Investigations initiated”
The town hall and the metropolis of Grenoble gave them their support. It is “a shame for the Republic to despise our institutions in this way”, said the deputy mayor of Grenoble Pierre Mériaux during the press briefing. “What is unbearable is that we refuse to regularize workers who the economy needs,” he added. According to him, the City will provide premises for bicycle delivery workers to rest and improve their access to the law.
The environmentalist mayor Éric Piolle had already denounced an “indignity” in a message published Thursday evening on the X network (formerly Twitter).
What an indignity.
Yesterday evening in Grenoble, a massive police check of bicycle delivery men led to several arrests for illegal stays.@GDarmaninthese people would therefore be “regular” enough to wait in the cold to deliver your meals, but not… pic.twitter.com/RgSQSeRcLy
— Éric Piolle (@EricPiolle) December 28, 2023
The Grenoble prosecutor Éric Vaillant responded to him on the same network that the checks had been carried out at his request and had “revealed that illegal delivery drivers were seriously exploited by those who sublet their licenses to them. » “Investigations are underway”, he adds. The Isère prefecture, for its part, stressed that it guarantees “the application of the laws of the Republic”.
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