A hundred young foreigners who asked the courts to be recognized as unaccompanied minors were expelled Friday from a place of accommodation on the edge of Toulouse.
Tears and cries of anger: in Toulouse, in the south-west of France, a hundred young foreigners who asked the justice to be recognized as unaccompanied minors were expelled Friday from a place of accommodation, in enforcement of a court decision. The police returned to the place – a former retirement home on the outskirts of the city – around 07:00 (0500 GMT) to evacuate the young people, mainly from West Africa, but also from Asia or North Africa, according to local associations.
“Freedom, freedom!”, Chanted the last to leave the buildings a little later in the morning, their eyes reddened by tear gas, before lying down on the road, some in tears, noted AFP. “Dozens of young people find themselves homeless without any alternative accommodation,” lamented community activist Jennifer Gruman. A little further, Mohamed, from Guinea, protests: “We don’t deserve this. Of course, we are Africans but we are not animals”, he repeats over and over.
“I arrived in France a year ago, I’m not yet 18”
Most of the young people concerned have been declared adults by the Haute-Garonne departmental council but have filed an appeal with the courts to have their minority recognized. “I arrived in France a year ago, I’m not yet 18. I never thought I would be treated like a criminal,” whispers Sami, an Algerian squatting on the sidewalk, next to a large plastic bag containing his belongings.
According to the Haute-Garonne prefecture, a personalized assessment of their administrative situation was offered to all young people before their expulsion, in order to find a rehousing solution, but “only four accepted it”. The city and the metropolis of Toulouse had set up in 2019 “a temporary accommodation system” for several dozen of these young people, with the support of associations. Subsequently, the Communal Center for Social Action, which became the owner of the building, decided to close it on January 25, 2022 and ordered the occupants to leave the premises, a decision then validated by the administrative justice.