Migrants arrested at Menton-Garavan station (Illustration) – F. Binacchi / ANP / 20 Minutes
- The services of the Alpes-Maritimes department confirm that eight young people assessed as adults were handed over to the border police (PAF) between October 2020 and March 2021.
- “In view of the pressure of flows, we cannot afford to welcome adults who reveal the child protection devices”, answers the community.
It lists a “ten cases in six months”. The association All citizens! denounces the fate of young foreigners arrested on leaving the children’s aid offices in the Alpes-Maritimes department. The community evokes for its part “an end of support” due to their majority and an “agreement with the police”.
“It is extremely shocking that a social service makes reports giving rise to arrests by the police concerning young exiles who do not pose a threat to public order”, criticized the association.
“Adults who unveil child protection systems”
“This process is contrary to the French social model” and “the future of these young people who have suffered, from their exile and their migration to their arrival in France, much suffering, is thus shattered”, adds All citizens! which asks the prefecture and the department to “put an end to it immediately”.
“In view of the pressure of flows, we cannot afford to welcome adults who reveal child protection devices”, responded the services of the department, confirming that eight young people assessed as major have been handed over to the border police (PAF) between October and March.
“We have an agreement with the departmental border police directorate that we call to come and pick up these young people assessed as adults. Most leave before having this interview, and very few are handed over to the PAF, ”added the Department of Children.
The negative minority in 142 out of 342 cases
Over the past four years, several thousand young foreigners have arrived in the Alpes-Maritimes from Italy and presenting themselves as unaccompanied minors falling under child protection (791 in 2017, 2,238 in 2018, 1,871 in 2019 and 2,683 in 2020), forcing the department to constantly adapt its reception systems.
Most (80%) quickly moved elsewhere. Last year, Social Assistance to Children carried out an assessment of their minority for 342 young people, “carried out by trained staff and in compliance with the law”, and negative in 142 cases.
Since 2015 and the influx of migrants arriving on the other side of the border, the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes and the PAF have been repeatedly questioned or even condemned for violations of the rights of foreigners, expeditious returns, denial of the right of asylum, etc.