Near Toulouse. The State wants to set up a center for migrants: the town hall plagues and calls for demonstrations
By Thibaut Calatayud
Published on
For the town hall Saint Lys (Upper Garonne)the project fails…
Friday, September 30, 2022, the municipality invites the inhabitants, “and anyone who wishes”, to meet in the parking lot of the Tabarly school to say no to the project of return preparation center (CPAR) which must open in place of the Ehpad “La Joie de Vivre”.
Why does it coincide?
“Summer 2021, the municipality of Saint-Lys learns of the purchase of premises located at the entrance to the city by the Adoma group, mandated by the State to install a CPAR there. This center will aim toaccommodate 126 asylum seekers whose requests have been rejected and who are willing to return to their country of origin”, explains the town hall of this town of 10,000 inhabitants, located south-west of Toulouse.
In a statement, the mayor serge mourning and its municipality nevertheless assures that it is not opposed to this project. So why is it stuck?
“This project is disproportionate and incompatible with the specificities and capacities of the territory. It is in this sense that the municipality has proposed to work with the prefecture on an acceptable solution, a solution that promotes social and territorial cohesion. It is clear that that we have not been heard.”
The town hall tackles a “manifest refusal of consultation”
“While the State requires us to produce social housing to meet the needs of our populations, this project goes against our location at a city entrance close to all public services. The purchase price of this building held by a Parisian SCI (Adoma, editor’s note) was above the market and any operator other than the State could not have positioned itself”, regrets the town hall.
Faced with a situation that it considers “unacceptable”, the municipality tried to propose alternatives to the State and to the various actors in the project, as was the case during the municipal council of October 11, 2021.
Unanswered mails
The community then submitted the idea of transforming the Ehpad into social housing and proposing other municipal buildings free of occupation for the CPAR system.
The proposal was not heard by the prefecture, nor by Gerald DarmaninMinister of the Interior, and Monique IborraRenaissance MP for the constituency of Saint-Lys, requested by mail.
“I tried for several months to start a dialogue with the State services to find a compromise acceptable to all. Faced with this manifest refusal to consult with the Town Hall and the actors concerned, it is therefore as representative of the population of Saint-Lysienne that I oppose this project. Let’s mobilize!”
The prefecture claims to have exchanged with the town hall
Requested by Toulouse Newsthe Prefecture of Haute-Garonne recalls that, pending the opening of this CPAR, “people who have exhausted their rights of residence in France, are housed in Haute-Garonne in scattered apartments, which in 2023 will no longer have destined to be housing.
“It is in this context that the operator ADOMA responded to a call for projects from the State-DGEF to create places to accommodate these people in the department. ADOMA looked for a property to acquire to create a structure capable of welcoming these audiences. These families gathered in the same place, can thus benefit from a greater proximity of the accompanying staff in order to prepare their departure and their reintegration in their country of return. The choice of the operator fell on an EHPAD in Saint-Lys whose operator must move to a new structure at the end of 2022.
Tackled by the municipality on the lack of consultation, the State services ensure that “the outline of this project has given rise to many exchange meetings since June 2021 between the State services, the OFII (French Office for Immigration and Integration, editor’s note), the operator ADOMA and the town hall of Saint-Lys ”.
“30 families maximum”
According to the prefecture, these discussions focused in particular on the number of people accommodated in this future CPAR: “Following these exchanges ADOMA increased the number of places initially planned from 160 to 120 places. 30 families could thus be at most received in this establishment, which is an open establishment, where they will be offered accommodation, supervision by a dedicated team and activities related to their reintegration project in their country of origin”. Asked about the alternatives proposed by the municipality of Saint-Lys, the administration indicates that it has received only one project alternative: “It was proposed in the same place (Ehpad, editor’s note)”.
In addition, the prefecture assures that the migrants accommodated in this center “will have no impact on the public services of the host municipality since length of stay linked to obtaining consular passes and transport tickets is spread over 15 days to 1 month on average. Indeed, during this short period, the children are not in school, the people housed benefit from service tickets to be used in nearby shops for their meals as well as transport tickets. ADOMA also provides medical and social follow-up”.
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