Kharkis: the government has expanded the list of recipients of compensation

Another confession for harkis. Thousands of them or their descendants will be eligible for new compensation for staying in French reception centers under deplorable conditions between 1962 and 1975, the French government said in a press release on Monday, which decided to expand the list of such places. “Up to 14,000 (additional) people may receive compensation after they pass through one of these structures,” the government estimates.

The government made this decision based on the recommendations of the first annual report of the Independent National Commission for the Recognition and Reparation of Harkis Affected by Harkis (CNIH), presented on Monday evening to Prime Minister Elisabeth Bourne in the presence of Patricia Miralles. , Secretary of State for Veterans Affairs and Remembrance. The CNIH was created as part of the harkis recognition and redress law promulgated on February 23, 2022 after President Emmanuel Macron announced it in September 2021.

French Muslims were mainly recruited as auxiliaries of the French Army during the Algerian War of Independence (1954–1962), the Harkis were abandoned by France at the end of the conflict. Tens of thousands of them and their families fled the retaliatory massacre in Algiers and were parked in France, often in appalling conditions. The Harks and their descendants today constitute a community in France numbering several hundred thousand people.

The law recognizes the “responsibility” of the Nation “because of the unworthy conditions of reception and residence on its territory” of the former auxiliaries, “housed in buildings of any kind”, where they were placed in such conditions that they “were a source of long-term alienation, suffering and injury “.

“However, it should be noted that the system resulting from the law of February 23 last year is not unanimous. And in a sense, this is understandable: (…) Nothing can completely fix what the harks have experienced, ”says Jean-Marie Bockel, president of CNIH, in the introduction to the report. “Various interlocutors told CNIH of many sites hosting harks between 1962 and 1975 that were not on the list of entities that gave eligibility for compensation,” the report states.

Therefore, the government has decided to expand the list of buildings that can serve as the basis for compensation (currently 89) by adding 45 new objects proposed by the commission, including military camps, slums, urban settlements, barracks, light prefabricated transit cities.

“With this decision (…) we are correcting a new injustice, in particular for regions where until now there has been little recognition of the damage caused by the Harki living there”, such as Hauts-de-France or Normandy. , Patricia Miralles told AFP.