Ocean Viking: the Council of State rejects the request to close the waiting area

Europe 1 with AFP 5:32 p.m., November 19, 2022

The Council of State rejected on Saturday the request of associations which demanded the closure of the waiting area created temporarily to receive migrants from the Ocean Viking, near Toulon, because they considered that they were illegally deprived of their freedom.

In his decision, the urgent applications judge of the Council of State "rejects" the request of the National Association for Border Assistance for Foreigners (Anafé), which had appealed to him after the rejection of his appeal before the summary judge of the administrative court of Toulon.

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“The judge notes the exceptional circumstances in which the reception of these people had to be organized” and observes “that the rights of these foreigners have not, by this sole fact, been seriously and manifestly illegally hindered”.

An area created in a holiday center

The 234 survivors rescued in the Mediterranean by the ambulance ship Ocean Viking and disembarked on November 11 in Toulon had been transferred to this area, created in a holiday center on the peninsula of Giens, in Hyères (Var), while their records are reviewed.

A large number of them have since been released, either by court decision, or because they are unaccompanied minors, or because they have benefited from admission to the territory for asylum after interviews with the Office French Protection for Refugees and Stateless Persons (Ofpra).

The interim judge of the Council of State notes that Ofpra "was able to conduct the interviews legally provided for", and that "the judge of freedoms and detention then the Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal pronounced on the extension of the detention measures, which was moreover refused in the vast majority of them".

"Updated list of 16 people" maintained

It also notes that "with the exception of the few hours during which the persons were present on the military base, the applicant association was able to access the holiday village without hindrance".

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According to the press release, the Ministry of the Interior sent Anafé an "updated list of the 16 people" kept in this center, "in order to facilitate the exercise of its mission of assistance, as it had been engaged during the hearing at the Council of State" which was held on Friday, and "lawyers also have access to the holiday village".

The judge in chambers of the Council of State concluded that "the absence of a serious and manifestly illegal attack on a fundamental freedom".