AA / Tunis / Majdi Ismail
The Defender of Rights denounced “systematic violations” of people’s rights by the French authorities at the Franco-Italian border, in particular asylum seekers and unaccompanied minors.
This framework decision by the French independent administrative authority, represented by Claire Hédon, is unprecedented, the daily Le Monde reported this Thursday.
For the first time, the Defender of Rights looked into France’s practices on its border with Italy and mentioned her observations in a 184-page document at the end of her investigation.
According to several reports, controls at this border contravene the principle of free movement of people in the Schengen area, but are constantly justified to the European Commission by the terrorist threat and the massive arrival of irregular migrants in Europe.
For almost two years, Claire Hédon investigated how these controls at the transalpine border on the French side are carried out, notably by going to the police stations of Menton (Alpes-Maritimes) and Montgenèvre (Hautes-Alpes), by examining service registers, by visiting the premises in which migrants are held, by questioning prefectures and law enforcement. Claire Hédon’s conclusions are scathing: ”The rights of migrants are the subject of massive violations,” underlines Le Monde.
In 2023, more than 30,000 entry refusals were recorded at the Franco-Italian border, on the grounds that people did not have a travel document or residence permit.
Over 184 pages, Claire Hédon details checks, arrests, deprivations of liberty and returns to Italy of migrants, describing these pushbacks as “illegal”.
The Defender of Rights noted that entry refusals were notified to people checked outside formally identified border crossing points. They are therefore already on the territory of France and should therefore have other control procedures applied, indicates the same Source.
At the Menton-Garavan station, which concentrates ”70% to 80% of arrests”, Claire Hédon observed ”discriminatory’ controls, based on physical characteristics associated with a real or supposed origin”, but also systematic pat-downs without the existence of a potential danger, including on minors and in public view.
Violations of children’s rights have also been widely documented by the Defender of Rights, who recommends that the police immediately refer young unaccompanied minors to the departments’ child welfare services.
However, the border police carry out “judicial identification operations”: they take their fingerprints and consult several biometric files. Also, when minors present civil status documents such as birth certificates, these are not taken into consideration. Moreover, the police mention incorrect dates of birth on the entry refusals they issue.
Claire Hédon, generally noted that the police deprived the arrested people of their liberty. The premises used to officially shelter migrants are in reality places of “arbitrary” confinement, since people do not benefit from the relevant rights there. The judge exercises no control over these places, people do not have access to a lawyer and the conditions of confinement are described as “undignified”.
The Defender of Rights insists on the fact that ”neither asylum seekers nor unaccompanied minors can be placed in administrative detention (because they are not in an irregular situation but must be directed, the first towards an application counter asylum and real shelter, the latter towards social assistance for children). Asylum requests submitted by foreigners ”must be transmitted without delay to the prefectural authority, and without further verification,” explains Claire Hédon.
The law relating to immigration adopted in December 2023 and promulgated in early 2024, provides for the placement in administrative detention of asylum seekers when they present a “risk of flight”. However, specifies Claire Hédon, this detention cannot be applied systematically to migrants at the border and should be subject to a constitutionality check, according to Le Monde.
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