France: Administrative Tribunal of Nice on the detention at the Franco-Italian border

Date: 
Thursday, June 15, 2017

On 15 June 2017, the Administrative Tribunal of Nice ruled on a référé-liberté case brought by different French NGOs, such as ANAFE, CIMADE and GISTI, regarding the practice of detention at the French-Italian border. The organisations asked for the suspension of the informal decision by the Alpes-Maritimes authorities to create a provisional detention zone in the city of Menton, for the release of all of those detained at that zone and for the placement of unaccompanied minors in appropriate reception centres.
 
The Court ruled that the information put before it, particularly with regard to the duration of the detention, was not sufficiently certain and precise. Therefore, it could not suspend the informal decision to create a provisional detention zone altogether. However, it affirmed that those who have been detained at the police station in Menton for more than four hours had to be transferred to official transit zones. It concluded that ordering the placement of unaccompanied minors was not within the mandate of the référé judge.
 
Based on an unofficial translation by the ELENA Weekly Legal Update. The EWLU would like to thank Flor Tercero for her kind assistance with summarising this case.

 


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Keywords: 
Detention