Eyes glued to their smartphones, they wait. In the reception hall of the former Les Tourelles retirement home, planted behind the Toulouse ring road, a dozen young people, mostly from West Africa, are pacing. Since the end of 2019, the place has been taken over by the town hall, as an experiment, to accommodate unaccompanied foreign minors (MIE). This is normally the county council, via Childhood social assistance (ASE), which must take charge of these young people.
In the huge building, they would still be 80 to spend their days there and, for some, their nights. Managed by a group of volunteers, AutonoMIE and by the Regional Association for the Safeguarding of Children, Adolescents and Adults (ARSEAA), an association funded by Toulouse Métropole, the experiment should end soon. In a letter dated January 25, the Communal Center for Social Action stated that “The site will be closed on February 7. The young people, who have communicated their identity, will be accompanied towards other suitable accommodation solutions ». Daniel Rougé, the first deputy in charge of social affairs, at the initiative of the device, specified: “A census of the situations has been proposed to allow orientations and avoid dry exits to the street. » The town hall notably mentioned, to justify the closure, problems of violence.
Since that date, the situation has not changed. For Alice, a volunteer with AutonoMIE, “we know that there are discussions between the town hall, the county council and the prefecture, but a bailiff has passed and we expect an expulsion”. On the side of the municipality, it is confirmed that such a procedure was launched on March 31. The decision now rests with the administrative court. According to the county council, “All the occupants of the Tourelles were considered adults, even if appeals were filed. They therefore no longer fall within the framework of the ASE and we are no longer competent to welcome them…”
Without papers or civil status
Since 2016, in Haute-Garonne, it is the departmental system for the reception of evaluation and orientation of unaccompanied minors that is responsible for evaluating the age of these young people. If they are minors, they are cared for in specialized homes throughout France. Otherwise, they are expelled. Many arrive without papers or civil status, coming from Guinea-Conakry, Mali or Côte d’Ivoire and the procedures can therefore be long. From 2015, faced with the influx of exiles, the community had decided to“stop automatic placements in hotels which are in no way structures adapted to the care of these people”.
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