Too many children are locked up in administrative detention centers (CRA). This is what five associations for the defense of migrants, including Cimade and France Terre d’Asile, denounce in their latest annual report published on Wednesday, April 26.
Immigration: in the trap of the OQTFs
The number of detained children increased sharply between 2021 and 2022, rising from 76 to 94 in France. Half of them were under the age of 12, the report said. However, alert the associations, even for a short period, ” confinement has dramatic consequences on the mental health of children: withdrawal, insomnia, refusal to eat, and post-traumatic stress”.
The sequel after the ad
There are also significant regional disparities in the number of children detained. According to the five associations, it is much higher overseas, with 2,905 children locked up in CRA or LRA (administrative detention facilities) in Mayotte, ie 30 times more than in France. In his future bill on immigration, the Minister of the Interior plans to prohibit the detention of children under 16 in CRAs, but only in France.
Excessive grounds for detention
The five NGOs denounce that the directives of Gérald Darmanin on the placement of foreigners in an irregular situation in administrative detention centers (CRA) have caused an upsurge in detention for reasons “ridiculous” or abusive. The report “confirms a trivialized use of detention, too often abusive and sometimes in unworthy conditions” within the 25 detention centers in France (including four overseas).
“These deviations were particularly important this year because of the clear directives of the Ministry of the Interior to favor the confinement in the CRAs of foreigners whose behavior would constitute a” disturbance to public order “”underlines the report, a policy which would come “hide” the personal situation of the data subject.
Migrants, those “undesirables” whose lives matter less
Since the instructions of August and November 2022 from the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin, the CRAs have identified more people who could have availed themselves of a right of residence on French territory, locked up for reasons sometimes “ridiculous”such as looks ” suspicious “ around you or a spit on the sidewalk, list the associations.
“For almost everything and anything, we will now justify detention for an alleged threat to public order”, a concept that remains unclear, comments to AFP Dalia Frantz, head of retention at La Cimade. And to specify that this tendency ” continues “ since early 2023.
