fearing that the waiting area at Roissy airport will turn into a cluster, the associations are withdrawing

For several months they have been proclaiming their fear that the waiting area for pending passengers (ZAPI) at Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle airport will turn into a cluster, without having the impression of being heard. After the departure of the Red Cross, Wednesday April 21, the National Association of Border Assistance for Foreigners (Anafé) announced, in turn, Monday April 26, that it was temporarily withdrawing from the largest France airport waiting area.

No association is now involved in this structure where foreigners who are not authorized to enter French territory are patient. The goal of this departure? Denounce what they consider to be dangerous conditions for migrants as well as for staff on site – border police (PAF), cleaning company and in charge of food – and to point out non-compliance with health recommendations. This unprecedented decision was not easy to take, confides volunteers from the association, but was decided to make the State react.

“Endangering people”

Laure Palun, director of Anafé, counted 133 people detained, Tuesday April 27, including 85 Indian nationals, in the structure which can accommodate up to 157 people. It is impossible to open the windows in this cramped space in which masks are poorly or not worn, and where there is no disinfection of the common premises, nor even the telephone booths used by a large number of people. Soap and hydroalcoholic gel are not freely available and people who do not know each other share rooms. “There is clearly an endangerment of people held in deplorable conditions, such as people who work there”, assures the director of the association.

“I have rarely seen so many people in a waiting area”, announces Charlène Cuartero Saez

For Charlène Cuartero Saez, coordinator of missions in waiting areas in France for Anafé, who went for the last time to the ZAPI of Roissy on Tuesday April 20, the atmosphere was heavy, anxiety-provoking, even surreal. . “I have rarely seen so many people in a waiting area, even in normal times” before the Covid-19 pandemic, she told the World.

Last week, the association therefore seized the administrative judge with requests for interim relief concerning the conditions of imprisonment of about twenty people. Without success. The judge of freedoms and detention, for his part, noted the breaches, without sanctioning the authorities and freeing the people, according to Anafé. “The courts validate and close their eyes to these conditions which are considered inhuman and degrading”, rebels the thirty-something, who saw no other way out than to withdraw to protest.

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