The baker wins the battle: his apprentice stays in France

For his apprentice he had started a hunger strike, to keep him in France he ended up in hospital. Stéphane Ravacley has won his battle. “Laye has her papers in order! And he goes back to work on Tuesday! », Announced the baker after a meeting at the prefecture of Haute-Saone. The baker’s hunger strike has become national and international news.

Many supported Stéphane when he opposed the expulsion order of his apprentice Laye Fodé Traoréiné, arrived a year and a half ago as an unaccompanied minor from Guinea and now with an expulsion order for being of age.

“I’m just a baker,” Ravacley said according to the Corriere della Sera, “But there are things that seem incomprehensible to me. Most guys leave after their apprenticeship because they don’t want to do the job anymore or because their employer doesn’t take good care of them. With Laye, on the other hand, we did a two-month test and everything went well, he wakes up at 3 every morning to come to the oven, he has learned French and would like to continue. He is a decent and willing boy, why send him back to suffer in his country, when he has a job here that he likes? ».

Dozens of citizens of Besançon went to the bakery to sign the petition and more than 230,000 French people signed the online appeal to President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron. Ravacley’s supporters include actor Omar Sy and writer Leila Slimani. MEP Raphaël Glucksmann said: «Stéphane Ravacley’s is the story of a man without a political parish who has decided to fight injustice to the end. Certain individual cases become symbols that define who we are and what we want to be ».

Now the boy has a residence permit and the expulsion measure from the national territory has been repealed. He left from Guinea 16, crossing Mali and Libya, he arrived in Italy on a boat and then by train to Nimes. «I chose to be an apprentice baker because there are many different things to do, and I like croissants and bread. Waking up early doesn’t bother me at all, “he said. Now he can continue to do so.

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