France: Police Expelling Migrant Children
Format
Flout Child Protection, Immigration Rules
(Paris) French police summarily expel dozens of unaccompanied children to Italy each month in violation of French and international law, Human Rights Watch said today.
To enable the returns, the police frequently record on official documents different ages or birth dates than the children declared. The authorities have also summarily returned adults, including families with young children, without telling them they had a right to seek asylum in France. The French border police have no legal authority to decide who is and who is not under 18, said Bénédicte Jeannerod, France director at Human Rights Watch. Instead of making snap judgments based on appearance or caprice, border police should refer young people to child protection authorities for appropriate care.
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Published on 13 January 2021 at 12:12
“The place where I stayed only hosted adult men, as minors were not allowed due to COVID and the interventions of volunteers in the first reception centers were suspended, also due to COVID” says Franca, an Italian nurse who was urgently called to duty after a pandemic was declared in March.
By that time, she was living and working in Belgium, but had to leave everything behind and move back to her country. Then, in the middle of August, Franca decided to go volunteering in a Sprar centre (protection system for refugees and asylum seekers) close to Trapani, in Sicily. “The hygienic conditions were very poor and three or four guests were sleeping in the same room. To be hones