Unaccompanied minors, a humanitarian disaster

Every night, hundreds of teenagers aged 14 to 18, mostly from sub-Saharan Africa, sleep in the streets of the French capital in extreme precariousness, without visibility and without human or political reaction from the public authorities. However, as soon as they arrived, they contacted the services of the department in order to have their minority recognized, hoping for support from the Childhood Social Assistance (ASE). During a summary, stereotyped, suspicious and dependent evaluation, more than 80% are refused and therefore returned to the street, even in the middle of winter, in Paris, Bobigny or Créteil. So the departments know these young people very well, their number, their situation, their traumas: crossing the desert, the Mediterranean, intra-family violence and abuse during the trip, death of their loved ones, their physical, psychological and social distress, their body and mind, their hopes for a better life; despite the charitable speeches of this or that elected official, these young exiles remain undesirable and must remain invisible because “neither minor nor major”, nothing in short!

The actors passing the ball of responsibilities to each other for not acting, whether it is the department, the city, the prefecture, the State. Nothing is therefore done to accommodate them and respect their dignity.

They thus do not have, in practice, access to their rights and are confronted with a real lottery, depending on the differentiated policies of each department, the involvement and competence of their lawyer, the ideology and the mood of a judge, the hazard of an encounter with a carer. We see every week that two identical files in terms of the profile of the young person and the evidence provided will have opposite results, one being placed in protection, the other left to the perils of the street, with a future of “undocumented” In France. Where is the principle of equality before the law?

The number of young people followed by the volunteers of the Midis du MIE association and placed by a judge also demonstrates the poor quality of the evaluations, or rather a manifest political will not to take charge of them, a short-sighted approach, because the vast majority of these young people are really minors (the evidence is provided) and the Childhood Social Assistance must then integrate young people who have waited months in the galley, without medical care, without psychological support, without schooling. And what will remain in their minds of this lack of welcome and the harshness of their first months in the country of human rights? What image does France and Europe send back to African countries which compare the situation of their nationals with the hospitality that we have, with honor and efficiency, granted to Ukrainian refugees? Here are some solutions, rational and in accordance with the laws of protection of children and the values ​​of our democratic country:

– A real evolution (and not symbolic as in Paris) and a homogenization of evaluation practices with more placements than today, from the first interviews;

– Systematic accommodation, even summary, from the end of the assessment, the time that the young person can bring his identity papers to France and meet a judge;

– Unconditional schooling (at least compulsory French lessons), because the first desire expressed by these courageous and resilient teenagers is to go to school, to create links and attachment to their new host country ;

– Material and human resources to help them in their efforts;

– A reduction in the time required to obtain a court hearing, particularly in Paris, with the setting of a maximum enforceable time limit of two or three months. The definitive abolition of the practice of bone tests, decried by the scientific community and interpreted differently according to the hospital and the judge.

Finally, a note of hope, once placed at the ASE, these young people are educated, learn a trade, do apprenticeships in shortage trades. Bosses like them because they find that they are mostly hardworking, respectful, honest, reliable, committed. Tomorrow, they will contribute to our economy in crafts, construction, care for children and the elderly, and to our pension payments!

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