The forceful statement was released shortly after the French government presented its controversial new immigration and asylum policy to parliament.
President Emmanuel Macron’s government has proposed tightening France’s immigration and asylum laws despite bitter criticism from rights groups, who argue that the new bill will undermine the rights of immigrants seeking protection in France.
Catherine Gaudard of Amnesty International France said: “Before Emmanuel Macron was elected to power France was not living up to its responsibilities [to immigrants]. And it is still not.
“Distinguishing between economic migrants and refugees only serves to dehumanise those in exile and to label [immigrants] as either ‘good’ or ‘bad’.”
Amnesty also slammed authorities in the southern border town of Nice over their decision to send some 27,000 migrants and refugees – including unaccompanied child migrants – back to Italy between January and July 2017 without respecting their right to seek asylum in France.
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Jean-Francois Dubost of Amnesty International said the rights group would press lawmakers to amend virtually all aspects of the immigration bill, which he says is “designed to dissuade” people from seeking asylum in France.
The new law will double to 90 days the time in which illegal immigrants can be detained, shorten the deadline to apply for asylum from 120 to 90 days and make the illegal crossing of borders an offence punishable by one year in jail and fines.
The number of people filing asylum requests in France hit a record 100,000 in 2017, prompting the unprecedented clamp down.
While migrant charities have slammed the bill as repressive, staff at France’s asylum court and the Ofpra refugee protection office went on strike for the first time in five years on Wednesday to denounce the “unquestionable break with France’s tradition of asylum”.
Interior minister Gérard Collomb described the new law as “totally balanced,” while prime minister Edouard Philippe said that it would help France better manage the migration crisis.
Mr Philippe told the French daily La Voix du Nord in an interview published on Thursday: “What we’re trying to achieve is a more efficient return policy.
“We are currently not doing enough to help those who have the right to stay in France, but also not doing enough to make sure that those who do not have the right to stay are sent home,” he said, adding that forced returns had increased by 20 per cent last year.”