the 90 young migrants from Les Tourelles have 20 days to leave
Referred to by the Municipal Center for Social Action (CCAS) in Toulouse, the administrative judge ordered the occupants of the former EHPAD des Tourelles to leave the premises. 90 young migrants welcomed since 2019 and the associations that take care of them have 20 days to find a solution.
A few meters from the Toulouse ring road, the former EHPAD des Tourelles has been welcoming around a hundred unaccompanied minors since the end of 2019. Young migrants who mostly come from West Africa and who are French-speaking. A decision of the Administrative Court of Toulouse price this May 6, 2022 obliges them to move.
On April 27, 2022, the administrative court of Toulouse was seized in summary proceedings by the CCAS (Communal Center for Social Action) of Toulouse, owner of the premises. According to this organization, theThe incidents and violence that occurred in 2021 in this establishment will have become unmanageable.
An argument refuted by a group of associations and volunteers who work for the integration of these unaccompanied minors. According to these associations, the problems of delinquency are really on the margins. “The CCAS (Communal Center for Social Action) met ahead of the violence by extrapolating it in an unfair way. These incidents are the work of 5 or 6 people at most. The associations working on the spot confirm this“, underlined Me Benjamin Francos during the hearing of April 27.
At the end of 2021, the Communal Center for Social Action wrote to the various associations concerned to notify them of the closure of the site from February 7. With the winter break, this period was extended but the youngsters remained. This summary procedure followed before the administrative court to hate and enforce the decision: the occupants must leave the premises.
The judge in chambers granted a period of twenty days”in order to allow the competent services of the State, the department of Haute-Garonne and the municipality of Toulouse to take the accommodation and support measures that are essential“is it stated in its decision.
“At this stage and given the length of the decision as well as its eminently contestable nature, we make no comments.“, for their part indicated the lawyers of the associations.
The town hall of Toulouse, which had made these places available, wishes to take them back to install an establishment with a social vocation that will welcome women on the street, pregnant or with children under 3 years old.
Mamadou, who arrived 9 months ago from Guinea Conakry, is one of the 90 young people who live in Les Tourelles. He says he is 16 but does not have identity papers to prove it, like the vast majority of his roommates. These young people, most of whom are from French-speaking African countries, are all awaiting a decision concerning their situation in France. Decisions that take a long time and that threaten to end up on the street.
I don’t know what will become of us. Here there are associations that accompany us. I was able to take tests thanks to them and they told me that I had a good level. So I was planning on going to school.
Normally it is at the Departmental Council, Going through Childhood social assistance (ASE), to take charge of these young people. But all were judged as adults by the Department. According to Médecins du Monde, all these young people filed a legal appeal against the decision of the Departmental Council because they would be between 15 and 17 years old. In the meantime, they find themselves in a hellish in-between: not being considered minors, they are not supported by the ASE but not being adults either, they cannot access 115, reserved for adults and families.
In his judgment, the judge in chambers considered that “the Tourelles building is not intended to provide long-term accommodation for foreign minors who are accommodated there, that their expulsion did not prevent them from continuing to be taken into care by the child welfare services or their right to emergency accommodation.“
For the time being, no concrete solution is emerging. The former EHPAD des Tourelles was a place where these young people could build themselves and try to see a future there. Some were also educated.