Paris, Feb 23 (RHC)-- In France, President Emmanuel Macron has unveiled a bill that would toughen France’s immigration and asylum laws.  The legislation would allow authorities to double the time they can detain migrants to 90 days -- while shortening the deadlines for migrants to apply for asylum. 

According to reports from Paris, the legislation would also allow for a 1-year prison term and fines for migrants found to have illegally crossed into France. 

Amnesty International France Director Catherine Gaudard said the legislation unfairly sorts asylum seekers into “migrants” and “refugees.”  She told reporters: “This reductive discourse is nefarious for two reasons.  First of all, it contributes to dehumanize persons who have been exiled, reducing them into a confrontation between good ones and bad ones, in some way.  In fact, migrants are individuals who have their own stories, their own journeys, their own reasons for leaving their countries.  And although they don’t all have the same status, they all have rights.”