Skip to main content

Dear Minister Besson,

We are writing to you in response to your October 29 statement following the publication of our report "Lost in Transit: Insufficient Protection for Unaccompanied Migrant Children at Roissy Charles de Gaulle Airport." The report includes detailed findings on how border police threatened unaccompanied migrant children with removal upon arrival, how children are detained with adults, placed in fast-tracked asylum procedures they do not fully comprehend, and sometimes deported to countries they merely transited on their way to Paris. We regret that in your response you discard our report as "baseless" and do not address the seriousness of these findings.

You dispute that unaccompanied migrant children are detained with adults at the airport. Airport border police in a meeting with Human Rights Watch on October 26 confirmed that children above age 13 are detained with adults and that there is no plan in place to put an end to joint detention of adults with children in airport detention. The main reason for this comingling of adults and children they said, was because the current detention center offers insufficient space. The planned creation of a separate area for unaccompanied migrant children inside the detention center that you mention in your statement will make the joint detention of children with adults less likely, but will not guarantee separation of all children at all times, as required by several international human rights treaties.

You also state that no unaccompanied migrant children are deported to countries they passed through except for family reasons. Human Rights Watch presented facts gathered during court hearings that border police have tried to put unaccompanied children on planes that left for countries they had merely transited, and that the only reason these children were not sent back was their refusal to board the plane. Given that French law permits the deportation of children to transit countries we asked in a meeting with your Ministry's representatives on October 30 for a copy of the instruction that prohibits the return of unaccompanied children to transit countries. So far, we have not received a copy of such an instruction or confirmation of its existence.

Contrary to your statement, Human Rights Watch does not call the transit zone a zone of "no rights" ["zone de non droit"] but we do term it a legal fiction. The report documents the plethora of laws that apply to unaccompanied migrant children in the transit zone and the institutions mandated to intervene on their behalf. We do not, however, consider that the mere existence of institutions and laws on paper means that they are accessible to children or serve their interests. The report documents in detail the various stages at which the current system, despite its sophistication, fails to grant unaccompanied migrant children the rights to which they are entitled.

You mention that we use imprecise legal terminology. We refrain from using the French legal term "placement" and instead use "detention" to describe children's detention at the airport, without implying a penitentiary regime. The term "placement" is a euphemism that implies that unaccompanied migrant children at the airport are taken into care when, in fact, they are put at risk and deprived of their liberty.

You argue that the trafficking victims are protected because they are detained (awaiting removal) at the airport transit zone, despite documented cases that traffickers have contacted, influenced and intimidated child victims held there. The airport detention center is not a specialized facility aimed at protecting victims of trafficking, but a place to ensure a person's removal.

Human Rights Watch conducts private and confidential interviews with victims and witnesses of human rights violations. We interview persons independently, cross-check their testimonies and state how many testimonies back our claims.  Although our mission is to highlight and remedy shortcomings and violations of international law, we do not discard testimonies and evidence favorable to a government and include such findings whenever gathered. For example, in this report we state that three children told us that they faced difficulties accessing the asylum procedure after arriving, but also point out that two children said that border police helped them lodge a claim.

You are right that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) does not demand that governments refrain from deporting unaccompanied migrant children. Such a recommendation would go beyond UNHCR's mandate. UNHCR, however, does recommend that the claim of unaccompanied children seeking asylum be considered under the regular asylum procedure and not be fast-tracked, a guideline that France, in contrast to countries such as the United Kingdom, currently does not follow.

The arbitrariness of the transit zone is such that an unaccompanied migrant child arriving by plane is treated under a different set of laws, and with less protection than a child considered to be "on French territory," despite the fact that both children may have exactly the same protection needs. We strongly encourage the French government to accord every unaccompanied migrant child the treatment he or she requires in order to be safe from harm, neglect, and exploitation, in line with the country's obligation under international human rights treaties.

We recommend that unaccompanied migrant children not be held or processed in the transit zone. Human Rights Watch does not suggest that all migrant children be given permission to remain in France. Rather, in line with France's obligation under international law and a recommendation by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, we urge the government to admit children to its territory in order to carefully assess their best interest, the risks they may face if returned, and to ensure that any decision about these children's future protects them from harm. It may be in a child's interest to return to his or her country. Such a decision, however, should not be made within the course of a few hours, in a detention center, by border police officers, and without proper representation by a lawyer and a guardian for the child.

Human Rights Watch recognizes France's legitimate interest in controlling its borders and in screening the identity of persons who seek entry. However, these interests do not permit France to place children at risk of harm. Other countries that face similar migration pressure, such as the United Kingdom or Germany, do not resort to the use of a transit zone or refuse entry to such a high number of unaccompanied children. France would not create an exception by improving the protection for unaccompanied children arriving by plane. On the contrary, it would make a positive contribution to ensuring that protection standards for such children in Europe are respected, and bring itself in line with countries that offer better safeguards, and with international law and standards.

We would welcome the opportunity to meet with you to discuss the report and our concerns in greater detail.

 

Sincerely,

Simone Troller                                                                                 

Researcher                                                                            

Children's Rights Division               

 

Jean-Marie Fardeau 

Director

Human Rights Watch office, Paris

Your tax deductible gift can help stop human rights violations and save lives around the world.

Region / Country