The Cimade announced Friday to have withdrawn its teams from the largest administrative detention center (CRA) in France, Mesnil-Amelot in Seine-et-Marne after several days of a situation of "extreme violence" for those held within of the Center. Since July 11, the association is no longer involved in this CRA located a few hundred meters from the runways of Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport.
"Three suicide attempts in the center not counting acts of self-harm"
According to the Cimade, about 200 people are currently held at the Mesnil-Amelot CRA, with a capacity of 240 places and where foreigners who are the subject of an expulsion decision are held pending their return. strength. In recent days, "there have been three suicide attempts in the center not counting acts of self-harm.To suppress hunger strikes, the detainees are sent to solitary confinement," said the secretary general of Cimade, Cyrille de Billy.
"These acts of violence no longer allow the teams of the Cimade to exercise their mission of legal support in good conditions," he explains. Solicited, the management of the CRA did not wish to express itself. "The policy pursued by the Ministry of the Interior in detention has consequences of extreme violence for those imprisoned," according to Cyrille de Billy. The Cimade claims "dignified living conditions, less confinement, 40% of detainees are released by court order".
"Access to drinking water is no longer possible after 19h"
According to the association, at the Mesnil-Amelot CRA, "access to drinking water is no longer possible after 7 pm A Sudanese pregnant woman is currently detained and has difficulties in accessing care." This withdrawal from the Cimade comes three weeks after a letter sent to the Minister of the Interior by 22 associations reminding him "the urgency of the situation in detention and the need in particular to take care of people with serious mental disorders".
In an answer, the Minister of the Interior Christophe Castaner assured that "the psychological care of the detainees will be strengthened".
The Cimade believes that this response is "insufficient" and "denies the daily illegal practices in detention centers such as confinement of children or expulsion of asylum seeker before the response of Opfra (French Office for Refugee Protection") and stateless persons) ". Of the 2,800 people locked in the CRA Mesnil-Amelot in 2018, 1,000 were expelled, according to the annual report of the associations authorized to intervene in CRA.