His lawyer denounced a “gruesome” situation. The courts released on Wednesday an 11-year-old child, a French native of Senegal, who had been locked in a waiting area upon her arrival at Paris-Orly airport and had her French passport taken away, he said. we learned on Thursday, confirming information from Médiapart.
According to the order issued urgently, which AFP was able to consult, the judge of the administrative court of Melun “ordered the administration to allow without delay” her entry into French territory, so that she could join his French family. “She had been held in the waiting area at Orly since October 19. On arrival, she had taken away her French passport” issued in 2020 in Dakar, Me Samy Djemaoun, who defended her pro bono, explained to AFP.
The lawyer denounced a “gruesome” situation. The judge in summary proceedings recognized that the authorities had irregularly notified him of the refusal to issue the certificate of nationality, he underlined, while “his father, his older sister and his brothers had obtained a certificate of nationality which did not has never been questioned.
In his order obtained by AFP, the judge concluded: “While it is not disputed by the Minister of the Interior that the applicant's father would still have French nationality, as would his sisters, the refusal of entry into the territory which was opposed (to the child) constitutes a serious and manifestly illegal attack on his freedom to come and go.” The little girl was able to return home to the Paris region.
According to the lawyer, she was held in “a space children 3 m², with a TV, some toys, separated by a screen from the adults' room. He particularly stressed that children held in the waiting area “are taken from their hotel rooms at 6 a.m. and do not return until 9 p.m.”, without the possibility of getting some fresh air.
In September, the National Association for Border Assistance for Foreigners (Anafé) affirmed, in a press release, that “every year, hundreds of children are locked up at French borders, in violation of international conventions”. The association called “once again for an end to the confinement of children in waiting areas”.
