The problem of illegal minor immigrants

In France the problem of how to deal with unaccompanied minor immigrants is arousing bitter controversies. As a form of protest against the Ministry of Justice, which is accused of not doing enough for solving the problem, since the beginning of September the department of Seine-Saint-Denis, located to the north of Paris, has refused to take in its reception centres the minors Judicial Services left in its care. Beyond the political struggle related to this issue, such an episode shows how complex and serious is the situation of this particular weak group of people requesting for asylum. Actually, the problem of illegal minor immigrants is not something new. Specialised NGOs (such as France Terre d’asile, the Croix Rouge or the Association nationale d’assistance aux frontières pour les étrangers ) agree that the phenomenon dates back to the early 2000s. However, it is difficult to have precise data.

If, indeed, on the one hand French law does not provide an official definition of the status of these minors, on the other, both national and European statistics are incomplete and disparate. In Europe, especially in the Mediterranean countries, there would be 100’000 foreign unaccompanied minors (4700 in Italy in 2010, 6500 in Spain in 2007, 4200 in the United Kingdom in 2009). France, which today would take in around 6000 MIEs- mineurs étrangers isolés is considered after all as a stop on the way to the UK. It is estimated that in 2009, 2500 youths crossed the department of Pas-de-Calais in order to embark on the ferries going to the UK.  Around 70% foreign minors live in Paris and the near Seine-Saint-Denis area. The protest against the Minister of Justice, Michel Mercier, is due to the fact that such a department is one of the most depressed areas of the country. Moreover in Roissy there is the “Charles de Gaulle” international airport, the main entrance door of minors to France. According to the surveys carried out by NGOs, in 2010 around 637 minors transited through the waiting hall of the hub. As for Paris, in 2010, 70 million euro were allocated for the care of 1600 unaccompanied minors – more than the double compared with 2008 – within the services provided by the Aide sociale à l’enfance (social facilities for children, paid by departments since 1986). These youths, coming especially from Afghanistan, wait at the Gare du Nord and the Gare de l’Est for passeurs giving them an expensive lift to North. As a response, an increasingly number of beds is being created in reception centres (Maisons du jeune réfugié, Cellule d’accueil des mineurs isolés étrangers, etc.). Moreover, France is trying to improve the coordination among the State, the single departments and the actors actively operating on the territory, as recommended by Isabelle Debré in the last parliamentary report on this issue in May 2010. Nonetheless, the situation of Seine-Sainte-Denis proves that there still is a great deal of work to do in this area…