In the wake of an article published by the French newspaper Libération, antisemitic, anti-France, xenophobic and racist messages have resurfaced, published for several years by the Filali couple, who, surprisingly, enjoy the culpable complacency of the French authorities.
The French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons (OFPRA) received a request for asylum from a couple of agitators whose photographs showing them making a “quenelle” (a kind of inverted Nazi salute) next to an effigy of former US President Barack Obama, provoked strong reactions.
An American whistleblower on the social network Twitter was shocked by the behaviour and dug up the pictures of the sulphurous couple where the quenelle gesture, which consists of stretching one arm downwards while placing the opposite hand on the shoulder of the outstretched arm, a reverse Nazi salute, is repeated several times.
The French government, which in October 2021 outlined in the Senate the vision that France will carry during its presidency of the European Union (EU), in order to find a consensus around the pact on asylum and migration, has not hesitated to offer refuge to a couple guilty of hate speech.
In a highly biased article, the French newspaper Libération turned Dounia Filali into a youtuber who allegedly investigates corruption and repression in Morocco, without any prior verification worthy of a major newspaper.
Contrary to previous allegations, she and her husband have applied for asylum in France, not in China, where they have not resided since last July, although they had previously claimed that “the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) had granted them political asylum in China.
Even more surprisingly, with the tacit agreement of the Chinese authorities, media sources had previously claimed that there was no evidence that the couple had been granted asylum, “especially since a lengthy and complex selection process applies only to genuine political refugees.
The evidence against the applicant is crucial,” it said.
“Since when has political asylum been granted to people who have managed to have passports issued using their real identities and have been able to blithely pass through the controls at Moroccan airports by presenting these documents?
Even more seriously, the speed of the services of the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons (OFPRA), responsible for examining applications, which registered 95,600 cases in 2020, is questionable in more ways than one.
Only one out of two asylum seekers is accommodated while his or her file is being studied, as the National Reception System (DNA) is saturated.
How could the Filali couple have obtained express authorisation, when the average time taken to examine applications before OFPRA has risen from 161 days in 2019 to 262 days in 2020, as an indication, due to the Covid-19 pandemic?
Does France not already have enough anti-Semites on its territory to allow itself to offer others, even more radical, political refugee status?
