France: Administrative Tribunal of Nice condemns authorities for immediate return of unaccompanied child on different cases

Date: 
Friday, February 23, 2018

The Administrative Tribunal of Nice has recently ruled on different cases concerning unaccompanied children who were returned to Italy upon arrival at the Menton-Garaval train station at the French-Italian border. On 23 February 2018, the Administrative Tribunal of Nice ruled in case no. 1800714 concerning a Sudanese unaccompanied child who was stopped by border authorities at the Menton-Garavan station, received a refusal of entry in the territory and was put back into a train to Ventimiglia that same day. His counsel seized the Administrative Tribunal of Nice by virtue of a référé-liberté in order to condemn the French authorities for violating the child’s fundamental rights.

The Administrative Tribunal of Nice ruled that the authorities’ decision to refuse entry constituted a serious and unlawful violation of the child’s best interests, as guaranteed under the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Court recalled that special procedural guarantees must be in place in all decisions concerning unaccompanied children, including in matters related to a decision of entry to the territory. In the case in question, the authorities had failed to appoint an ad hoc administrator to accompany the child and had violated the child’s right not to be expelled within 24h following the decision to refuse entry. The Tribunal quashed the authorities’ decision to refuse the child entry to the territory.

Similarly, on 22 January 2018, the Administrative Tribunal of Nice ruled in case no. 1800195 and condemned the immediate return to Italy of an Eritrean unaccompanied child. According to the Court, it is immaterial that the child had marked the box indicating that he “wished to go back as soon as possible”, since he was an unaccompanied 12-year old child without any legal assistance and could only understand his mother tongue.

Therefore, the Administrative Tribunal of Nice requested the relevant local regional authorities to get in touch with the Italian authorities in order to issue the child a “safe conduct” (sauf-conduit) allowing him to present himself at the border post, to allocate the child an ad hoc administrator, and to inform the child about his rights and obligations on asylum matters in a language  he understands.

Based on an unofficial translation by the ELENA Weekly Legal Update. We would like to thank Flor Tercero for bringing this case to our attention.


 


This item was reproduced with the permission of ECRE from the weekly ELENA legal update supported by the Fundamental Rights and Citizenship Funding Programme and distributed by email. The purpose of these updates is to inform asylum lawyers and legal organizations supporting asylum seekers and refugees of recent developments in the field of asylum law. Please note that the information provided is taken from publicly available information on the internet. Every reasonable effort is made to make the content accurate and up to date at the time each item is published but no responsibility for its accuracy and correctness, or for any consequences of relying on it, is assumed by ECRE, the IRC or its partners.

                                                     

 

Keywords: 
Effective access to procedures
Unaccompanied minor