- Two children born in France were returned to the Comoros in 2013.
- The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has decided to sanction France.
They are 3 and 5 years old and were returned to the Comoros by boat. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) severely condemned France on Thursday for administrative detention then the “expeditious return” to the Comoros of two children of 3 and 5 years old who entered Illegally in Mayotte, finding no less than seven violations of the European Convention.
These two children were "placed in administrative detention in the company of adults [who were not from their families] and sent expeditiously to the Comoros", which "could only have created a situation of stress and anxiety and have particularly traumatic consequences for their psyche, ”said the court which sits in Strasbourg. The Council of Europe's judicial branch was seized by the father of the two children who has lived in Mayotte since 1994 on a regular basis.
They were born in Mayotte
"France's condemnation is particularly harsh and illustrates the arbitrariness of the expulsion of foreigners from overseas," commented on Twitter the specialist in European law Nicolas Hervieu, stressing however that "it will have taken seven years and many efforts ”to arrive at this finding of the ECHR.
Rights of foreign children: #France is condemned by #CEDH for the detention of two children (3 & 5 years old), their arbitrary attachment to an unknown adult & their expeditious removal (from Mayotte).
No less than 7 violations are noted.
=> https://t.co/3w3r7DiHSr pic.twitter.com/D82QEXNASA
Born in 2008 and 2010, the two children, also applicants, were born in Mayotte. Their Comorian mother, in an irregular situation, was sent back to Comoros in 2011 with them, but she then returned to Mayotte after having entrusted her children to their grandmother.
In November 2013, the two children made the journey back to Mayotte "aboard a makeshift boat" whose 17 passengers were arrested at sea by the French authorities, according to the court. They were administratively attached to one of these passengers and returned the same day to the Comoros, without their father being able to contact them.
Seven violations alleged against France
"All the particular circumstances lead the Court to conclude that the removal of the two children, of a very young age, whom no adult knew or assisted, was decided and implemented without granting them the guarantee a reasonable and objective examination of their situation ", summed up the ECHR.
France will have to pay 22,500 euros to the father and the two children for non-pecuniary damage. In total, the judges of the court considered that, in this case, France had committed seven violations of various articles of the European Convention on Human Rights, in particular those on the prohibition of inhuman and degrading treatment, on the right to liberty and security or to the right to respect for private and family life.
"We are facing a sevenfold violation of the Convention, which is completely exceptional and which shows the abnormality of the situation in Mayotte, which is still relevant today," replied Patrice Spinosi, family lawyer to the ECHR.
France's third conviction since June
The two children now live in Mayotte "in the care of their father as it should have been from the start," said the lawyer.
This is the third conviction of France by the ECHR since the beginning of June, after that concerning pro-Palestinian activists who had called for the boycott of Israeli products and another for not having taken sufficient measures to protect a small girl died under the blows of her parents.
In 2019, more than 27,000 people were returned to the border in Mayotte, 99% of them to neighboring Comoros, according to prefectural authorities.
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- Expulsion
- Comoros
- Mayotte
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