- For a year, a team from the “Forbidden Zone” investigated the care of children in homes for child welfare.
- Most of the images were filmed with a hidden camera, the requests for filming sent to the departments having almost all been refused.
- Broadcast this Sunday at 9:05 pm on M6, the survey highlights the violence suffered by children in care, the dilapidation of the premises, the lack of control of establishments and training of certain educators.
"During these months of investigation, I sometimes had a knotted stomach," says journalist Jean-Charles Doria. Invited to the National Assembly last January 8 alongside his team, the director of an investigation devoted to the failings of Social Aid for Children (ASE), struggled to hide his anger.
"When I started this subject, I did not expect such an omerta," he explains to the handful of deputies who came to attend, in preview, the screening of this documentary, which 20 Minutes was able to attend. . An uplifting work, sometimes revolting, that will be able to discover this Sunday the viewers of the magazine "Zone Interdite", on M6.
Quasi-systematic refusals
In this long-term survey, Jean-Charles Doria's teams were able to integrate several homes responsible for welcoming placed children, in Dijon or in Seine-Saint-Denis. Most of the images were filmed with a hidden camera, the requests for filming sent to the departments having almost all been refused. For 90 minutes, the documentary highlights the multiple shortcomings of this policy, managed at the departmental level.
For 1 year, the Prohibited Zone teams entered the opaque world of Child Welfare. An investigation that reveals an amazing reality ...
"Minors in danger: an investigation into the scandalous failings of child welfare" 📺 @ M6 📅Sunday ⏰21h05 pic.twitter.com/19gBvfvuTD
Several journalists have managed to be recruited as educators, without training, without diplomas and without prior verification of their criminal records. We also see educational teams overtaken by children sometimes suffering from severe mental disorders, without appropriate care, in dilapidated and dirty premises. Even more serious, the team of Jean-Charles Doria looked into the case of children placed sexually abused in a home and that of adolescent victims of pimping.
A precedent in January 2019
Particularly dense, the survey nevertheless endeavors to highlight some encouraging initiatives. Only one home in Bas-Rhin has opened its doors to journalists from the Prohibited Zone. High management rate, trained staff or animal mediation, the policy conducted on a microlocal scale by the director of this establishment acts as "breathing" in this overwhelming subject.
This was all the more unbearable given that a previous documentary, broadcast a year ago on France 3, already pointed to these shortcomings and the violence suffered by children in care. Faced with outcry at the time, the Prime Minister had announced, a few weeks later, the appointment of a secretary of state for child protection.
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- Investigation
- M6
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- Restricted zone
- Child protection