> French version
For the 2010 DVD edition of RESF: a resistance network, we have worked out a glossary of key words heard in the films, related to France’s immigration policy. The information contained in this lexicon gives some context and details about the events recounted in the films.

CRIMINAL SOLIDARITY

The offence of “facilitating the irregular entry, movement or stay of an alien” was initially instituted to combat “clandestine immigration networks”. However, as the French penal code does not explicitly connect the offence to the pursuit of a lucrative aim, the law may be subjected to a wide scope of application. Due to the vagueness of this law, any act of solidarity may be interpreted as a criminal act, a reality that some associations have tried to denounce by inventing the expression “criminal solidarity”.
From 1945 to 2007, the offence of facilitating irregular entry and stay was liable to a jail sentence of a month to a year. However, since the November 2007 Hortefeux law (article L. 622-1 of the CESEDA), anyone found guilty of the crime may receive up to five years in prison and a 30 000 euro fine. Beyond this law, more and more general texts unrelated to the legislation on immigration are now being mobilized to incriminate different forms of support to illegal immigrants, such as criminal contempt, slander and libel or unlawful interference with an aircraft, for instance.

> Sources

- Article site web Gisti
- Article site web Cette France-là
- Voir le dossier complet du GISTI « Les délits de la solidarité »