For you, lawyer at the Marseille bar who defends the cases of children in care, is the Châteauroux trial (eighteen people tried for having illegally taken in dozens of children entrusted by Child Welfare? of the North) will change the situation?
Yes, this raises awareness, shows that there is not enough control over foster families, that there is danger for the children. But Child Welfare (ASE, a departmental service) has known this from the start, it is they who should check in with families on a regular basis. The one we are not pursuing but who should be is the president of the Department. It is to him that the judges entrust the children, not to the ASE.
Every time it’s the same thing, we have children who suffer but their voices disappear as soon as they are placed. In Châteauroux, the children talked, we knew. In Béziers, I have just pleaded for a child, beaten and deprived of food in her foster family. Until the day the teacher reported it because the little girl was stealing other people’s snacks. Another child placed with this same family posed an identical problem. The children were recovered but social services provided no explanation at the hearing.
