France enacts a law recognising the Indochina repatriates and creating a right to reparation

29 October 2026

France has put on the statute book a law on the repatriates from Indochina. LOI n° 2026-1008, promulgated by President Emmanuel Macron and published in the Journal officiel of 30 October 2026, states in Article 1 that the Nation is grateful to repatriates who served France as soldiers, former auxiliaries and public agents, and acknowledges responsibility for the undignified conditions in which civilian repatriates and their families were housed. Article 2 creates a national day of homage on 8 June and designates memory sites, notably at Noyant-d'Allier and Sainte-Livrade-sur-Lot. Article 3 opens a lump-sum reparation to those who stayed in a listed structure between 22 July 1954 and 31 December 1975, the list and the scale being fixed by decree. The sum is exempted from income tax through article 81 of the Code general des impots and from the social levy under the Code de la securite sociale. Article 7 covers the cost through an additional excise on tobacco. The text began as a private member's bill, was passed by the National Assembly in June 2025 and by the Senate on 19 October 2026, and was countersigned by Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu and the minister for the armed forces and veterans, Catherine Vautrin.