chargement...
Karim Kafouni, 52, a liver transplant recipient with multiple complications, has been living in an irregular situation in France since April 22, 2025. After eight years in the country for medical treatment, the Moroccan national, who resides in Villeneuve-d'Ascq near Lille, received a deportation order in March 2023. The reason, according to the French authorities: his treatment is «available» in Morocco. Yet both his French and Moroccan doctors firmly disagree.
«In Morocco, anti-rejection medication is indeed available now, but not in sufficient quantities—and more importantly, my illness, primary sclerosing cholangitis, is constantly progressing», he told Mediapart, which reported on his case on June 3. «Going back to Morocco would be a death sentence», Karim said. His medical file is extensive: transplant surgery, graft rejection, diabetes, and kidney failure.
Camille Boittiaux of Doctors of the World denounces the «ambiguity» surrounding what constitutes the effective availability of treatment. «A drug may exist on paper but still be inaccessible or unaffordable for the patient», she explained.
According to figures cited by Mediapart, the number of residence permits granted on medical grounds has dropped by over 30% in four years—from 30,400 in 2018 to 20,600 in 2022. This decline began after a 2017 reform shifted responsibility for medical evaluations from public health authorities to doctors under the Ministry of the Interior.
Karim has exhausted every possible avenue: legal appeals, medical reports, public mobilizations. Nothing has worked. He lost his job, his stability, and was hospitalized for depression. Separated from his family, he confides, «I no longer have the strength to fight». A deportation could ultimately seal his fate.
