An administrative detention center (CRA) is the prison’s vegan steak. It has the texture of a prison (walls and barbed wire), it smells like a prison (damp and musty), but “it’s not prison”, warns the police commander in charge of the Mesnil-Amelot CRA, at the foot of the Roissy – Charles-de-Gaulle airport runways. To avoid confusion, even vocabulary matters. In prison, we have “detainees” when they are only “detained” in an CRA, even if in one case as in the other, they cannot freely cross the perimeter walls. And when they do it illegally, it’s not an “escape” but a simple “leak”.
Obviously, the differences do not stop at a lexical question. Prisons make it possible to execute a court decision (penalty, pre-trial detention, etc.) while the purpose of the CRAs is to “keep in a closed place a foreigner who is the subject of a deportation decision [comme les fameuses Obligations de quitter le territoire français (OQTF)], pending forced dismissal. But above all, the prisons come under the Ministry of Justice and the CRAs come under the Interior, and are at the discretion of the administration. And this has thousands of consequences.
The parliamentary passport
For example, visiting an ARC is much more complex. It was therefore necessary to go through a parliamentarian. Here Julien Bayou, Nupes-EELV deputy from Paris, who has the right to unexpectedly visit a CRA by taking journalists. On this Tuesday afternoon at the end of December, we are therefore five journalists accompanying him to Le Mesnil-Amelot, in Seine-et-Marne. The sky is a uniform gray and it’s raining, just to make the one-story building with orange tiles a little more ugly. The unexpected visit prevents the authorities from hiding the dust under the carpet, but the commander of the border police (PAF) who manages the site is not destabilized for all that, she who receives “2-3 visits per week “. Moreover, she seems to be experienced in her role as guide and takes the little troop to this CRA which has 120 places for men.
We begin the visit with the registry where a large table lists the OQTFs then the excavation room with a storage space where the personal effects of the “detainees” are stored. After crossing a large screened courtyard, overflown very closely by an airliner, we arrive in a residential area. A small room with TV and two riveted tables serves as a common room. The toilet block looks (and smells) like communal gymnasium locker rooms. Finally, the bedrooms – some would say cells – are small rooms made up of two bunk beds, a shelf and a table. A single window, made in the entrance door, provides access to natural light.
Each residential block is locked at nightfall. “We roll call in the evening and then close the gates,” explains the commander. But the schedule is variable, around 9 p.m. – 10 p.m. in winter and later in summer if they continue to play football in the yard. On the other hand, communication between rooms remains possible and it is not uncommon for “detainees” to move the mattresses to group themselves in a room. “They can be 3-4 to sleep together, testifies the policewoman. It’s not embarrassing if it’s reassuring and if it’s a factor of peace. That way they feel safe. »
Even if that day, the feeling of insecurity is not very present (but it is perhaps linked to the imposing police escort), tensions at the CRA are commonplace. The police are thus seeing more and more clashes between detainees, for thefts for example. Artisanal sourins are, according to them, regularly seized. Last August, a mutiny even broke out. It must be said that in this CRA in particular, many of the “detainees” are former detainees, around 70% according to a police estimate. After serving their sentence, they are sent to CRA pending deportation. Not to mention people with psychiatric disorders or drug addicts.
In solitary confinement “until calm returns”
Faced with these tensions, “we are increasingly resorting to isolation”, confesses the site commander. Isolation is a rectangular cell with a bunk and WC. The length of solitary confinement is very variable. Basically, “until calm returns”. Which makes Julien Bayou say that “the code is vague and that we ultimately have very few valid rules”. There are currently two isolation cells but only one is operational. The partition of the other was dented by the metacarpals of a “retained”. Work is underway to create a third.
Faced with these increasing tensions, the management is little or not trained. Unlike the prison, where there is a real job of prison guard, here, the Ministry of the Interior requires, it is the members of the PAF who act as guards, at the rate of 150 police officers per CRA. They are either young students, too badly classified at the end of the police academy to hope to go elsewhere, or old people who aspire to schedules more conciliatory with family life.
Coloring workshop with mixed success
However, occupying people whose detention can go up to 90 days since a 2018 law is not easy. “We try to set up occupational activities but it does not always have much success”, comments the commander. And here, unlike the prison, no external association, except the Cimade, can intervene to entertain the “detainees”. So the authorities organized coloring workshops which, unsurprisingly, did not really appeal to the “retained” men… The women, who are 31 in another neighboring CRA, were on the other hand more receptive and some of their creations were d elsewhere was pinned to the wall.
Another grievance, frequently addressed when talking about CRAs, is food. “It’s a hassle, we don’t have to eat”, thus alerts a “detained” with Julien Bayou in a corridor. Before continuing: “The food is shit, we don’t want to be there. Then a crowd forms where everyone tries to plead their case. This is the case of Richard, supposed to leave for Abidjan the same morning: “I have been in France for 40 years, my children are French, my life is in France and I find myself in an CRA. My rights are violated! Another “detained” approaches: “I would like to know what I’m doing in a detention center? A Palestinian arrives with his file under his arm but the commander intervenes: “We are going to continue the visit! You have 120 like that, otherwise I’ll open a box for you! “We are not lucky,” laments the Palestinian as he returns to his quarters.
Immediately after, the commander provides after-sales service: “Cleaning is done every day and there is an ironing in the toilets. The food is in filmed trays and if there is any left, they can have extra bread. “Nevertheless in the refectory of the CRA where the women are held, a poster taped to a window indicates “No bread, sauces, sugar, additional cups”.
In a corner, high chairs remind us that this CRA can accommodate eight families, including children, even if this is not the case at the moment. The commander specifies that she bought comforters for the children. “It breaks your heart, laments the Green MP. There is no reason to keep locking up children in this country. France has been repeatedly condemned by the ECJ for inhuman treatment. »
The parliamentarian intends to use this visit to influence the content of the bill “To control immigration, improve integration” tabled on December 19 before the Council of State and scheduled for passage to the Council of Ministers mid- January. “When there is this avalanche of increasingly harsh texts on immigration which are useless, I want to take a much more reasoned path and which begins with the prohibition of the confinement of children”, he supports. . For him, this whole system is only a “stupid and weak administrative machinery when most of these people only ask to be able to integrate, work, be regularized and be able to contribute to the life of the country”. He concludes: “Most of these people are perfectly innocent. They are only illegal with regard to their administrative status. Like this Algerian for ten years in France who would like to be able to stay for her sick mother. “But it’s not me who decides. »