The Rennes group of support for undocumented people is organizing against bone tests to determine the age of young migrants.
Action report
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Hello,
in the name of the Collective of support for undocumented people of Rennes, we were a dozen this afternoon to invest the general management of the Pontchaillou hospital with two leaflets (see attached files) and 6 banners which allowed a certain diffusion of the information within the hospital.
This action aimed to denounce the practice of medical tests to assess the age in the abuses of legal medicine and penitentiary. Indeed, a GA which brought together about ten UAMs (see leaflet n ° 1) had informed us that, recently, bone tests had taken place at the public hospital and, more seriously, coupled with a dental examination with the result of ” a majority evaluation in contradiction with the statements, the birth certificate and a previous evaluation of a young person in another department who had declared him a minor before sending him to Rennes where he had been reassessed of legal age, with validation by the Children’s Judge and proposal for bone tests.
We also knew that the forensic medicine services are requisitioned by justice and can hardly oppose this requisition but we remembered that, in not so distant times, the same services made sure to assess and not declare young people of legal age, writing that they were over 17 years old. In short, doctors had invented a resistance protocol that allowed them not to be illegal AND not to collaborate with the state racism of medical tests, with or without the consent of young people.
We hesitated between going directly to forensic medicine or going to the general management. As you will see in this CR, we did well to choose the second.
In any case, we had decided to act discreetly, therefore without the media, because we wanted to give the public hospital a chance to make reservations or even to commit to abolishing the practice of medical tests, since it was our claim, as for 13 years that we fight against this major symbol of state racism in practice. The victory obtained in 2018 against the Saint-Hélier clinic gave us hope.
After 15 minutes, the chief of staff received us in delegation (of 4) for a good half hour.
After having listened to our grievances and read our leaflet (see leaflet n ° 2), the director – who told us to represent the management – gave a speech of the most worrying for the future. It should be noted that he was speaking as a civil servant and that he did say that he could think of something else as a citizen, as so many civil servants repeat to us while applying the rules that they defend as civil servants. .
1) He began by criticizing our method, namely forcing the obtaining of an RV by occupation, which does not seem to him to correspond to the way of doing in a State of law where it is enough to ask for an RV in shapes. We said it was our way, alea jacta est.
2) He then fully defended what is happening in “his” hospital because the latter is doing the tests within the legal framework of a judicial requisition order which obliges him to do the medical tests AND “in accordance with scientific data “(we have tried to say that science is divided on the scientific effectiveness of the tests but, nay, no doubt in its official speech).
3) More precisely, when there are medical tests, he explained to us that it is the public hospital establishment which is requisitioned and which appoints a forensic doctor. The tests are carried out according to a protocol and each forensic doctor acts independently, in other words is the only person responsible and decision-maker of the verdict of the tests. This way of presenting the procedure rather led us to emphasize that, therefore, the hospital and the evaluating doctor were directly responsible for the medical transformation of young people into adults.
4) To which he answered several times that no, it was the LRA and the justice system which were directly responsible since the hospital was only obeying the requisition, in accordance with the law. We did try to ask what could happen if the hospital refused to do the tests and therefore took the risk of being sued, but we did not have a clear answer because, obviously, it is out of order. question that the public hospital disobeys justice in a State of law, even if one makes him do a racist act (according to our point of view he added).
5) We then wanted to know more about the evolution of the evaluation protocol for 10 years and the return of a dental examination, which seemed to us – according to our memories – prohibited by law since the legalization of bone tests in 2016 (thanks Taubira). He clearly refused to answer on the evolution of the evaluation protocol and on the fact that, from now on, doctors no longer organize themselves to resist the fact of declaring young people of age by medical tests. It is obvious that something has happened internally but he held his tongue well and we can only suspect that the doctors who are now silent and no longer resist what we do to them. do at the hospital.
6) On the other hand, and this was the only victory of the day, he undertook to go and verify that the presence of a dental examination in the evaluation protocol was indeed legal.
7) He alternated between saying he did not know and saying that he could not answer us on the current performance of medical tests in 2021.
8) Finally, he reminded us that not every doctor can refuse to do the tests because, unlike what happens with abortion, there is no conscience clause. He was the one who made this comparison.
The interview ended quite coldly since we announced that, following this position taken by the management of the hospital, we were going to move on to the second step: of course also attacking responsible justice or the ARS but perhaps, if the GA decides it next Saturday, redo an action at the hospital but this time in the activist and media rules of the art, that is to say fully public. He asked to be warned.
The fight has only just begun, comrades, but it is clear that, if we had obtained a good victory against the Saint-Hélier clinic, which unknowingly hosted a forensic assessor in 2018, it will be much harder with the public hospital. , especially with such a coldly legal-rational leadership.
See you on Saturday 11 am in GA at FSU 14 rue Papu for the rest of the adventures …
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