After desperate journeys to France, cold, rain bear down on child migrants

PARIS (AA) – Thousands of unaccompanied minors living in France are facing hardships in their quest for a better life and recognition of their fundamental rights.

Abandoned in the cold and rain, with no drinking water or electricity, the children living in the Ivry-sur-Seine fled their countries and are now thousands of kilometers from their families, having risked everything in search of a better life.

That was their hope when they fled their homes in Cameroon, Senegal, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Gambia due to war and violence. But the reality they found in France turned out to be quite different.

A member of the Utopia 56 exile support association, interviewed by Anadolu Agency, criticized the response of the government, which he said has chosen “not to recognize these adolescents who are already traumatized.”

“We try to give them all the support we can, but the state doesn’t make it easy for us. With a harsh policy in place, we’re forced to change the location of the camp regularly to escape police harassment. The young migrants’ rights are not respected. No access to school, work, or housing. It’s really a serious matter,” he said.

Last May, the association set up a camp at Place de la Bastille, in the heart of Paris, to show the fate of unaccompanied minors.

Among the 500 young people, around 65% were identified as unaccompanied minors in 2021, having already spent several months on the street, according to the group.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child have pronounced that if a person says they are an isolated minor, they must be presumed as such until French authorities can verify the claim.

Despite this, Utopia 56 accuses the government of a “flagrant violation of international legislation and human rights.”