By toughening the tone against immigration, the Ministry of the Interior has caused a trivialization of confinement in administrative detention centers (CRA). This is what five associations denounce, including La Cimade and France Terre d’Asile, in their annual report published on Wednesday.
The annual 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 abuses 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 that would “hide” the personal situation of the person concerned.
Many children locked up in Mayotte
In addition, the associations note the increase from 76 to 94 children locked up in these centers in France, half of whom are under 12 years old. “The confinement has dramatic consequences on the mental health of children: withdrawal, insomnia, refusal to eat, and post-traumatic stress”, they still judge, reports France Info. It is overseas, and particularly in Mayotte, that they are the most numerous with 2,905 children were locked up in CRA or LRA (local administrative detention), or 30 times more than in France.
Since the instructions of August and November 2022 from Gérald Darmanin, the CRAs have identified more people who could have taken advantage of a right of residence on French territory, locked up for sometimes “derisory” reasons, such as “suspicious” looks 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 notion that remains unclear, comments to AFP Dalia Frantz, head of detention at La Cimade. And to specify that this trend “Continues” since the beginning of 2023. The associations also denounce a policy which nourishes “abusive amalgams” between immigration and delinquency.
A duration multiplied by two
In 2022, 43,565 undocumented migrants were placed in detention awaiting deportation. A figure still lower than those recorded before the pandemic in 2019 (53,273). Compared to 2021, the number of foreigners in CRA remains stable in Mayotte (26,020) but increases by 8.3% in France (15,922). “Disproportionate”, this recourse to confinement is considered “useless” by the defenders of migrants: of all the immigrants in an irregular situation detained last year, half of them were released, in particular because of procedural irregularities.
Another point of alert: the average duration of detention is now 23 days in metropolitan France, foreigners cannot be detained for more than three months. It has almost doubled since 2017 while evictions are still taking place during the first days of confinement, note the associations.