On a daily basis, the teams of the SOS Solidarités Group support foreigners locked up in Administrative Detention Centers in Paris-Vincennes, Metz, Strasbourg and Lille, in the exercise of their rights.
Each year, the SOS Solidarités Group publishes alongside Forum Réfugiés, France Terre d’Asile, La Cimade and Solidarité Mayotte, a National Report on the situations encountered in these places of deprivation of liberty. This report is the only independent, quantified and detailed source on detention in France.
The Findings And Analyzes of The 2022 Report
After the years 2020 and 2021, which had seen the number of placements in detention and deportation of foreigners drop sharply due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we observe in 2022 a clear recovery following the gradual reopening of borders, with 43,565 people locked up in detention centers in France and overseas.
Our associations note that too many deportation and detention decisions are taken indiscriminately, at the risk of making errors of assessment with serious consequences.
In 2022, the notion of threat to public order has become the overriding criterion, despite its imprecise definition. It is not uncommon for the administration to simply rely on a report to invoke this threat, without really taking into consideration the reality, seriousness or timeliness of the alleged facts. The circulars of August 3, 2022 and November 17, 2022 from the Minister of the Interior lead the administration to make ever wider and more extensive use of this concept, sometimes to the detriment of the fundamental rights of individuals.
Despite our numerous alerts, parents of French children, people who grew up in France, seriously ill people, people protected by asylum have been locked up without a thorough examination of their situation. Some have even been forcibly removed, despite any consideration for their family life or their vulnerability, or even completely illegally. We observed too often unjustified deprivations of liberty. More than half of the people imprisoned in the CRAs in mainland France were released, often by the judges, because their placement or removal measures were illegal, or their effective expulsion was impossible.
Contrary to the orientations announced today by the government, future legislative developments must take note of these realities.
Our associations call for reconsidering the current system of confinement and expulsion, and for preserving the rights of foreigners.
This article is originally published on groupe-sos.org
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