France is no exception to receiving the influx of migrants like the rest of Europe. However, recent reports have revealed that French border police authorities have been rejecting unaccompanied migrant children who have dared dangerous mountain trips from Italy to France.

France conducts rigorous age evaluations and interviews. These children claim they present their real identification documents (national identity cards), but the authorities insist they are lying. 

Bénédicte Jeannerod, France director at Human Rights Watch has decried “Child protection should not be a matter of caprice. Age assessments should afford children a fair process, not look for excuses to deny them protection.” Look for excuses to deny them protection.” 

What does the French law say about unaccompanied minors?

There is a provision in the French law for age assessment. The child protection system conducts the assessment for unaccompanied children and takes care of them (Service de l’aide sociale à l’enfance).

On the contrary, international standards are different. They insist age assessment should be a last resort. That is, only in cases where there are serious doubts about a person’s declared age. Or in cases where the documentary evidence is lacking.

Border police in France’s Hautes-Alpes department have summarily returned children, instead of referring them to protection services, Human Rights Watch found. These accounts are consistent with reports from nongovernmental organizations, lawyers, and volunteer groups. 

In HRW’s reports, 17-year-old Amadin N. from Benin recounted: “I showed my papers that said that I was a minor, but the police didn’t want to hear it.” Worse still, French police have continued to harass and sometimes instigate the prosecution of people around the mountain areas who try to help migrants in distress. These charges are contrary to the constitution. The July 2018 court ruling explained it was not illegal to help others in need.

Human Rights organizations speak

Helping people in need remains a common human duty everywhere. However, it has been very complex for people and rights groups to understand. Some of them like the French Defenders of Rights continue rescuing and supporting these migrant children. In some cases, the authorities compelled them to serious car inspections or legal claims. This is because they carried out rescue missions around the mountain roads to assist migrant children. Most of them arrive wounded, sick, traumatized, and helpless, French Defenders of Rights reported.

Amnesty International’s Human Rights Defenders Researcher, Lisa Maracani, corroborated with disappointment. She said, “Providing food to the hungry and warmth to the homeless have become increasingly risky activities in northern France, as the authorities regularly target people offering help to migrants and refugees.” 

One humanitarian worker told Amnesty International about her sad experience. The police violently pushed her to the ground and choked her. This was in June 2018 after she had filmed four officers chasing a foreign national in Calais. 

Amnesty International worker Loan Torondel working in Calais had this to say. “I feel that I am caught between the acute needs of people I am trying to help and the intimidation of French authorities who are trying to hamper humanitarian activities and label our activities as crimes…”

Recommendation

The United Nations Special Rapporteur Léo Heller made some remarks. He said “Migrants, regardless of their status, are entitled to human rights without discrimination, including access to adequate housing, education, healthcare, water, and sanitation as well as access to justice and remedies. By depriving them of their rights or making access increasingly difficult, France is violating its international human rights obligations.”

The French government needs to enact policies strict and just assessment of minor migrants when they go to France. Above all, aid and rights defenders deserve protection. They should be free from prosecution, threatening, or harassment for offering humanitarian assistance.

Unaccompanied migrant children are still children. They deserve protection like other children.

Search the Organisation for World Peace to read more articles on migrants.

The original article is published on Sept 8, 2019.

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