A-Infos (en) France, OCL CA #352 - Young Migrants: The Determined Struggles of Unaccompanied Minors (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Unaccompanied minors arrive in France in very difficult conditions, 
after long, dangerous and extremely trying journeys. The welcome they 
receive here is obviously far from living up to their expectations. 
Associations often provide them with initial support, which proves 
essential. But it is their own ability to organize and mobilize that 
allows them to build a balance of power and make their voices heard in 
defense of their rights.

 A welcome from the French authorities marked by defiance, violence, 
and disregard for the law.

Throughout France, situations are multiplying where institutions, in 
defiance of the law and with total impunity, are putting unaccompanied 
minors (UMs) on the streets, without rights or resources, and who 
survive in unacceptable conditions.
Before entering France, these young people are often turned back at the 
borders [1], during irregular racial profiling checks, without taking 
their minority into account. They can find themselves locked up in 
waiting areas (ports and international airports) and/or detention 
centers, - particularly in Guyana and Mayotte - , and even be given, 
through illegal practices by the prefectures, false dates of birth which 
make them pass for adults.

To be "sheltered" by the institutions, these young people must prove 
their minority and isolation to the child welfare services (ASE), which 
are dependent on the departments. However, during the first 
"assessment," these services reject a significant number of 
applications, considering these children to be adult migrants, 
questioning their word and their identity documents. The methods used 
are often intrusive and destabilizing: young people may undergo bone 
tests (although these are considered unreliable), "social assessment" 
interviews intended to determine whether the age declared by the young 
person seems credible and which are in fact real interrogations.

Beyond the disparities in treatment from one department to another [2], 
it is the logic of control and the suspicion of fraud which predominate, 
rather than the presumption of minority.
Once the minority is denied, far from applying the International 
Convention on the Rights of the Child, which should oblige the ASE to 
provide accommodation and educational assistance to the adolescent for 
the entire duration of the investigation of his or her appeal, it is the 
street which awaits the young person.
Solidarity associations then invite him or her to file an appeal with 
the juvenile judge which can take many months. Since this appeal does 
not have suspensive effect, these young people, neither minors nor 
adults = "mid-year-olds", find themselves excluded from any form of 
protection and deprived of their fundamental rights: accommodation [3], 
access to care, educational monitoring (see box) and the most vital 
needs (food, clothing, hygiene, etc.).
If the judge rules in favor of the young people regarding their 
minority, the ASE and the department are forced to take them back under 
their protection. Otherwise, and without any room for doubt, they are 
considered adults and therefore illegal migrants liable to deportation.
Certainly, the ASE, like all social services, is completely 
under-resourced, but it is clear that the mistreatment of migrants, 
young and adult, results from the political will of the State and the 
departments.

The paths of resistance: that of solidarity associations...
In many large cities in France, we see tent camps or squats of young 
people subjected to the violent cycle of police raids and evacuations. 
These are carried out under the hypocritical pretext of respecting the 
health and safety (why not the well-being...) of these young people 
deliberately condemned to the streets by the authorities themselves. 
They are accompanied by pseudo "shelters," temporary in any case, and 
reasons for forced dispersal to other places and regions... before 
returning to the streets: it is endless harassment as cruel as it is 
ineffective.
In medium-sized and small towns, almost everywhere, there are solidarity 
associations, neighborhood collectives, RESF networks (Education Without 
Borders Networks) opposed to the government's repressive measures 
regarding migration. For both humanitarian and political reasons, they 
are usefully working to find accommodation and support for these young 
people.
These associations fill the (deliberate) gaps in the state and 
institutions. Very often, they are the ones who take the steps, organize 
everything, and take charge of minors, at the risk of speaking and 
acting in their place and not promoting their autonomy; this is 
particularly the case in small towns or rural areas, where isolated 
young people, who are fewer in number, find themselves accommodated by 
families.

...and the tenacious, self-organized struggle of the miners themselves
In large cities where there are more young people seeking asylum, 
unions, political parties and associations are also showing solidarity, 
but they seem to do so with respect for the autonomy of action of young 
people, the first people concerned.
Indeed, in recent years, they have been able to demonstrate their 
capacity for collective action and self-organisation, which has given 
them strong visibility and resonance. This is in fact the case of their 
elders, undocumented workers, who have embarked on long-term strikes and 
actions in certain companies to demand their regularisation [4]

Thus, after the evacuations of the camps and then the gymnasiums, minors 
awaiting appeals, fed up with being rejected everywhere amidst almost 
general indifference, organized themselves to make themselves visible. 
Nearly 400 of them slept for weeks in September 2023 in the Parc de 
Belleville (Paris 20th), then successively occupied the Maison de l'Air 
de Belleville, the Académie du Climat (4th arrondissement), and the 
Cent-Quatre (Paris 19th) last March. Through these direct actions, they 
succeeded in putting pressure on the public authorities to obtain 
shelter, albeit temporary, which affected around 900 young people. Then 
they decided to exist as the Collectif des jeunes du Parc de Belleville, 
bringing together 450 young people. They continued to organize 
occupations of cultural sites belonging to the Paris City Hall: the 
Maison des Métallos (Paris 11th), since the beginning of April 2024 and 
for nearly three months, which they made "a house of struggle" (with the 
support of neighbors, unions, other collectives). After their expulsion 
from this place, it was the Gaîté lyrique (Paris 3rd) that they occupied 
on December 10, 2024.
These occupations have the merit of "breaking the invisibility and 
isolation" of young people seeking minority status, of creating a 
balance of power to put pressure on institutions, of crystallizing 
solidarity mobilizations, of making their demands loud and visible: 
respect for the presumption of minority, reduction of the duration of 
appeals, decent and lasting accommodation, schooling, an end to police 
harassment and evictions without suitable rehousing, decent medical and 
psychological coverage, access to culture and transport; in short, what 
minors are entitled to.

Despite the difficult conditions, the building occupations are "active." 
Not only are young people managing daily life collectively, making 
decisions in general assemblies, and organizing legal hotlines for 
access to health care and schools, but they are also increasing the 
number of demonstrations, public meetings, and rallies in front of town 
halls, the prefecture, and the education authority; all while building 
bonds of solidarity with residents, unions, and associations.

All this is seriously annoying the authorities.
On March 18, the young people were evacuated from the Gaîté Lyrique, by 
order of the prefect and with the complicity of the mayor of Paris, with 
the deployment of CRS and mobile gendarmes who violently charged the 
demonstrators and entered the building using tear gas and batons. 
Several young migrants were injured. 65 arrests took place; 27 young 
people arrested received an order to leave French territory - 7 of these 
OQTF jumped "thanks to pressure" [5]
On March 21, an investigation into intentional police violence was opened.
Hidalgo, for her part, considered that this police evacuation operation 
was "necessary" ... and she did not offer any accommodation solution. So 
the street, again, for these young people, with the installation of 
around ten camps on the banks of the Seine, which were evacuated in turn 
on April 1.

The struggle continues and spreads
Without a collective space, the struggle continues with greater 
difficulty due to the dispersion. Yet, young people declare: "We will 
never give up or become discouraged. It is our future and our dreams 
that are at stake."
By the fall of 2024, the struggling miners of the Parc de Belleville had 
created a national coordination to give a more global dimension to their 
commitments and link their struggles to other movements, including those 
of undocumented workers. The struggles waged in the Paris region were 
the most visible, and with strong media coverage; they inspired dynamics 
elsewhere, and self-organized collectives of young exiles who arrived 
alone in the country are multiplying to enforce their rights.

A first meeting of the national coordination of struggling miners' 
collectives took place in September 2024, leading to the formation of 
other collectives.
At the end of January 2025, eight collectives-Toulouse, Marseille, 
Lille, Paris, Rouen, Rennes, Clermont Ferrand, and Tours-met for the 
second time in Paris. Over three days, workshops and discussions allowed 
them to exchange views on their struggle strategies and demands.
Other collectives were formed in Lyon, Saint-Etienne, and Besançon.

The third meeting took place in Lille, on May 3 and 4, 2025, at the call 
of the Collective of Young People in Appeal of Bois Blancs and the 
Collective of Inhabitants in Solidarity and Indignant of Bois Blancs, 
both born in 2024 when around 70 young people in appeal to have their 
minority recognized were surviving in tents in a camp set up by the 
Utopia 56 association in a public neighborhood park.

The challenges of these meetings are the sharing of experiences (the 
situations faced by unaccompanied minors vary significantly depending on 
the city and department), collective organization, the coordination of 
struggles to gain visibility and influence, and the strengthening of 
solidarity.
The main demands are shared by all these groups: to have a roof over 
one's head, to be regularized, to be educated, to be able to receive 
medical care and to travel on public transport.
The aim is also to change the general public's perception of 
unaccompanied minors, whom political leaders have labeled as 
delinquents, as dangerous people, when they are actually in danger 
because they live in extreme precariousness.
Furthermore, at both the local and national levels, each group strives 
to create links with other solidarity-based trade union and political 
organizations, to more forcefully attack the measures of a State and a 
system that "authorize violence, sexism, and xenophobia."

Finally, the goal of the miners is to expand the coordination so that it 
represents ever more cities, in order to unite forces, give a hexagonal 
scope to local struggles, encourage them and allow the organization of 
joint and simultaneous demonstrations. Not only to denounce, but also to 
inform about the situation of unaccompanied minors in France and to find 
solutions to their demands.

Kris-June 20

To write to the youth collective : deleguesmnalille at gmail.com
To follow the struggles of the unaccompanied minors' collectives in 
France on social media:

Lille @mna_des_bois_blancs
Paris @belleville.mobilization
Rouen @collectif-de-rouen
Tours @collectif_jeunes_tours
Clermont-Ferrand @collectif.mna63
Toulouse, Rennes, Marseille, Besançon
Right to education?
Schooling is fundamental to the lives of isolated young people. It is 
often one of the main reasons that led them to leave their country to 
join Europe. Their educational path will also largely determine their 
access to residency, once they come of age.
Young people under 18 have the unconditional right to education and 
training. In France, school is compulsory until the age of 16, and the 
right to education is legitimate until the age of majority since the law 
"for a school of trust" of July 26, 2019.
However, thousands of unaccompanied minors seeking legal redress are 
deprived of schooling. And when they do access it, the classes are not 
always adapted to their needs as non-native speakers; and they are 
almost systematically directed towards vocational training.
Most of the time, it takes the mobilization of solidarity associations 
with rectorates to obtain registrations in high schools, and to denounce 
the abusive demand for administrative documents.

Notes
[1] 1France, among other European countries, has re-established controls 
at its borders since 2015. In this context, these have become the scene 
of human rights violations, including against unaccompanied children.

[2] The government has created, via the services of the prefectures, a 
national biometric file of all young migrants requesting protection, 
called Support for the Assessment of Minority (AEM). Thus, a young 
person who is not recognized as a minor in one department will no longer 
be able to submit a new application in another.

[3] The 115 emergency accommodation number only accepts adults

[4] Self-organization and mobilizations for more than a year of 
temporary RSI workers in the construction industry, with a strike 
(started in 2021) and a picket in front of the group in Gennevilliers; 
strike by delivery workers at the Frichti company; picket lines at 
Chronopost in Alfortville from December 2021 to November 2024; strikes 
by employees in the hotel industry, on the Olympic Games construction 
sites and in Greater Paris; at Emmaüs; strike by Uber and Deliveroo 
delivery workers in Poitiers; squatters in many cities; movement of 
undocumented students; struggle of retired workers from Adoma shelters - 
formerly Sonacotra shelters - and their self-organization (collectives 
of undocumented workers and coordination...

[5] On May 27, a meeting at the Paris Labour Exchange brought together 
several hundred people, at the call of various groups, including that of 
the young people of Belleville Park, to demand in particular the 
cancellation of the OQTF targeting around twenty minors.

http://oclibertaire.lautre.net/spip.php?article4490
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