Defender of Rights denounces illegal police identity checks targeting migrants – Libération

Checks near, or even within, humanitarian associations and health centres deprive migrants of their fundamental rights, the independent administrative authority denounces in an opinion obtained by “Libération”.

“There have been times when police officers have entered our waiting room!” This doctor from a clinic in Mayotte does not hide her indignation at the “recurrence” controls that she equates with «l’intimidation». “Patients seen by a doctor and waiting for the pharmacy to deliver their treatment were arrested”continues the practitioner with LiberationShe is sometimes reduced to crossing the street that separates her from the radiology department with her patient to avoid him being arrested.

Fundamental rights under threat

These identity checks, carried out by the border police (PAF) and the operational support group (GAO) of the national police, aim to arrest immigrants in an irregular situation. More than 40% of the 321,000 inhabitants of Mayotte are of foreign nationality, the majority of whom are undocumented, mainly from the neighboring archipelago of the Comoros. In 2023, the State carried out 24,467 deportations. The police target places where people in an irregular situation are likely to find them, near health centers and humanitarian associations. For the latter, the method dissuades these groups from benefiting from the services to which they are entitled: administrative support, access to housing and education,