Bordeaux on 10/13/2021- The associations Cimade and Médecins du Monde denounce the unprecedented proposal made on Tuesday, October 12 by the Prefecture of Gironde to unaccompanied minors who have initiated an appeal before the children’s judge: the return to the country !
This proposal was made to young foreigners who lived in the Kabako squat until their expulsion on September 23. Their emergency accommodation via 115 was scheduled until October 11.
Since the expulsion, two meetings between the Kabako collective, Médecins du Monde and Tremplin have been organized with the Director of the Prefect’s office and the Director of Social Assistance for Children (ASE). The Prefecture of the Gironde then undertook to study the possibility of extending hotel accommodation for these children until the court decision. All have in fact initiated proceedings before the children’s judge so that he can rule on their minority, their isolation and their situation of danger. Some already have a hearing date scheduled for October and November, others are awaiting a date or the authentication of their identity documents.
However, on October 11, the chief of staff of the Prefect indicated that the young people would have left the hotels that day and specified that a a meeting at the OFII would be organized today to offer them return assistance to their country of origin in exchange for a extension of their accommodation.
This proposal is illegal. It should also be noted that, among these children, this return assistance is offered, including to an Afghan national.
The law does not provide for any device for minors in recourse, they are returned to the street without any support. However, administrative judges may have considered that the fact that the children’s judge has not yet pronounced “does not preclude the department from continuing to provide provisional support for the person concerned when such reception is the only solution to put an end to the risks incurred by the young person for his health and safety or its morality and that it does not exceed the capacity of action of the collectivityé ”. Elsewhere, cities have been able to reflect on the shelter of these young foreigners awaiting a judicial decision. Since yesterday, these children and adolescents have found themselves without a housing solution.
The Prefecture of the Gironde was not only content to kick them out as it has been doing for a long time, it went further. Today, it makes the extension of emergency accommodation conditional on the acceptance of assistance for return to the country of origin. We point out that no acceptance of return assistance can be required to have a roof in Gironde as in the rest of French territory.
This morning, our associations seized the Defender of Rights and appealed to the secretariat for child protection.
It is urgent that the administrations cease such practices and that the law protect these children who have brought an appeal before the children’s judge and ensure them accommodation in a dignified place suitable for their age without any conditions!
Press contacts:
Cimade- Valentina Pacheco: 06.42.15.77.14
Doctors of the World – Fanny Mantaux: 06.09.17.35.59
Author: Communication service
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