Question 23855 — children

Summary

Ms. Valérie Boyer draws the attention of the Prime Minister to the difficulties that the departments are encountering in the face of the massive arrival of unaccompanied foreign minors in France in recent years. Indeed, the law of March 14, 2016 relating to child protection requires departments to welcome and accommodate unaccompanied minors (UMAs) in child welfare reception structures (ASE). The MP met the August 29, 2019 the deputy director general in charge of solidarity of the Bouches-du-Rhône department as well as the director of Children and Families as part of the budget report on immigration that she is writing within the Foreign Affairs Committee. Departmental services have reported their difficulties in meeting needs and fear that the situation will worsen due to lack of resources. According to the Assembly of Departments of France (ADF) 13,000 unaccompanied minors (UMAs) were welcomed in France in 2016. A year later, there were 25,000, that is to say almost double. In 2018, she estimates that there were nearly 42,000 unaccompanied minors in France. However, the exact number of MNA present on the national territory is not indicated in the activity report published by the national MNA mission in June 2019, which only speaks of “incoming flows ". It is therefore impossible to know precisely the number of unaccompanied minors currently entrusted to the departments, which are nevertheless legally and financially responsible for them. Faced with this massive flow of young migrants, the departments lack the means and support from the State to fulfill their missions. This is particularly the case of the Bouches-du-Rhône department, which is the second department to have to accommodate the most unaccompanied minors in France after the Nord department. During the summer of 2019, the flow of young migrants arriving in Marseille and presenting themselves as unaccompanied minors continued to increase while accommodation centers were saturated, experiencing an occupancy rate of 100% or more. On July 31, 2019, the Bouches-du-Rhône department crossed the symbolic threshold of 1,000 unaccompanied minors out of the more than 4,000 children cared for by the ASE. Thus, at In total, 25% of minors supported by the ASE in Bouches-du-Rhône are unaccompanied minors. This unprecedented situation leads to extreme tension in the accommodation system and generates additional costs that are very insufficiently compensated by the State. The exceptional participation of the State has in fact decreased. In 2018, the so-called “Cazeneuve” system set it at 12,000 euros per additional young person supported on 31 December 2017 (compared to December 31, 2016). In 2019, the interministerial decree of August 27, 2019 reduced it to 6,000 euros for 75% of additional young people taken into care on December 31, 2018 compared to December 31, 2017. With regard to the sheltering and evaluation of the minority of young people, the interministerial decree of July 18, 2019 establishes a new basis for compensation. As of January 1, 2019, the State will pay a fixed price of 500 euros per young person for the assessment and a financial contribution for emergency shelter for 23 days (in the amount of 90 euros per day for the first 14 days, then 20 euros between the 15th and 23rd day); a maximum amount of 1,940 euros, the amount previously in force was 1,250 euros. This increase in the State's contribution nevertheless remains marginal. In addition, the department deplores a high rate of “reorientations” of unaccompanied minors, set by the Ministry of Justice. This rate was 62% in 2018. This legacy of the “Taubira system” has the consequence of entrusting more and more young people to the Bouches-du-Rhône department. However, this system does not take into account existing accommodation structures. In addition to this, the choices of the Marseille children's court also penalize the department: children's judges, contacted directly by young people via lawyers, issue provisional placement orders for evaluation, which are not recorded by the Ministry of Justice, and are therefore not subject to reimbursement of part of the costs incurred for them. Thus, the departments continue to assume their obligations, namely the evaluation of the minority and the isolation of each of these young people, then the accommodation of young people entrusted to them by judicial decision. The national biometric file to assist in the assessment of minorities must, according to the provisions of Decree No. 2019-57 of January 30, 2019, help departments by ensuring that young people who present have not already been assessed as adults by another department, or that their identity has been established. This tool must be developed by all of the prefectures. Faced with these observations, the MP would like the State to regulate the migratory flow as best as possible and take its full share of responsibility in welcoming young migrants declaring themselves “unaccompanied minors”. Indeed, the child protection policy of the departments is diverted from its primary objective by welcoming these young economic migrants, whose needs are totally different from those of other minors entrusted to child welfare. Also, at a minimum, state services should take direct responsibility for the reception and assessment of young migrants, as the Prime Minister declared on October 20, 2017 during the congress of the Assembly of Departments of France. In addition, the State should provide material support to the departments with regard to accommodation. She then wishes to know her position on this subject.

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