“Even a few hours in this place is enough for a child to be traumatized.” These words are those of Nia, a thirty-year-old Georgian. In 2020, with her partner Nukri and her son Kosta, then 8 years old, they were locked up in an administrative detention center for 14 days. With their documentary Locked up children, broadcast on France 3 Grand Est on January 25, 2024 and available on the France TV platform, Noémie Ninnin and Sélim Benzeghia seek to raise awareness about a common but little-known phenomenon: the confinement of children in France. Arrival in France in 2019, Kosta’s family fled Georgia following death threats. After a rejected asylum request, the family received an obligation to leave French territory (OQTF) in March 2020. This was accompanied by house arrest requiring the entire family to report to the police station every day. A first ordeal for the little boy who keeps asking his mother “what is our crime”.
Administrative detention centers: “it’s worse than prison”
Then comes the threat of expulsion from French territory and with it, confinement in an administrative detention center (CRA). Corentin Bailleul, head of advocacy at UNICEF France, explains that an unaccompanied minor cannot be placed in one of these custodial establishments. On the other hand, if his parents are locked up, he himself cannot escape it. This is what happened to Kosta’s family. These administrative detention centers are considered by many people who have stayed there as “worse than prison”, specifies Laura Robach, former lawyer at ASSFAM at the Metz-Queuleu Administrative Retention Center. Indeed, the conditions of confinement are similar to those that can be found in a penitentiary establishment. Search at the entrance, confiscation of personal effects, center surrounded by barbed wire, police officers responsible for surveillance present at all hours… “Even a short period of time is very serious for a child, explains Omar Guerrero, clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst, member of the Board of Directors of the Primo Levi Center. Locked up for three days, four days or 24 hours, the damage is done.”
After 14 days of living in fear, with police checks in their room morning and evening, the family was taken by force to the plane. Nia, like her partner Nukri, refuses to be deported. While she handcuffs him, a policewoman humiliates him further by commenting “if you like your child to watch this”, says the young woman. Kosta panicked when he saw the plane, to the point that a police officer carried him and put him there by force, says his mother. Since then, the family has settled in Turkey, but Kosta is not at the end of his troubles. Indeed, his mother reports that the after-effects of confinement are still present, especially during the night. Omar Guerrero confirms having been able to observe night terrors and sleepwalking attacks thus aggressive or mute behavior in children who have been locked up in administrative detention centers.
Immigration law: the end of child confinement?
In March 2022, the European Court of Human Rights condemned France for locking up Kosta’s family. Since 2012, a total of 11 convictions have singled out the French state for its violations of children’s rights in contexts of administrative detention of their families. The Cimade reports list 36,785 children locked up between 2012 and 2022, including more than 35,000 in Mayotte and more than 1,500 in France. The immigration law, promulgated on January 26, 2024 after the censorship of a certain number of articles by the Constitutional Council, provides the ban on the confinement of minors in administrative detention centers and premises. For the documentary makers, this is a big step forward, since few European countries apply this policy. Ireland is one of them.
A preferable situation, but far from ideal
However, house arrest and in particular the reporting system at the police station with children or even “strong” arrests are all problems that must be addressed. Noémie Ninnin and Sélim Benzeghia recall that the law will not be applied in Mayotte before 2027thus opening the door to more thousands of children being imprisoned in the French overseas department. “It should guarantees to preserve the child at all stages of these removal measures. Currently, he is seen as an accompanist for parents”denounce the directors.
Corentin Bailleul, for his part, recalls that “France has ratified the International Convention of children’s rights.” This did not prevent him from violating a certain number of provisions. Every five years, the child rights committee evaluates whether countries that have ratified the Convention respect their obligations. France has been condemned by the committee on several occasions and recommended that it put an end to the administrative confinement of children. And if the new law goes in this direction, it does not concern all the children locked up in France, specifies the head of advocacy, because some of them are held at the borders. This placement of children in what are called “waiting areas” can last up to 20 days. A little more than 500 children were affected in France in 2022, according to Corentin Bailleul.
Locked Up Childrenby Noémie Ninnin and Sélim Benzeghia, available on the France TV platform.