Ban on hotel placements, new supervision standards, integration assistance at 18: the government intends to pass a law this year to improve the lot of minors entrusted to Social Assistance for Children (ASE ), announced Wednesday evening January 27 the Secretary of State in charge of the file, Adrien Taquet.
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"We are going to include in the law the prohibition of the placement of children in hotels,"
he declared on France 3, during a debate broadcast after an investigation by "Exhibits" on the failures of the ASE.
"There is a law in preparation"
which will also be the occasion to
"include for the first time in the law standards of supervision rates"
for places welcoming minors of the ASE, added the Secretary of State.
This law should come into force at the start of 2022, Adrien Taquet's entourage told AFP, specifying that the ban on hotel accommodation would only suffer from
"very strict exceptions"
, concerning in particular unaccompanied foreign minors during the short period when their age is being assessed.
The law will impose a compulsory control, each year, by the prefect, of the action of the departmental councils in matters of child aid.
Each establishment will also have to be endowed with an
independent
"third authority"
, to which minors can contact in case of difficulty, a bit like the Defender of Rights, the same source explained.
Finally, all the young people of the ASE
"who turn 18"
will be offered by the State a path towards employment or training, within the framework of a local mission, as well as an allowance of 500 euros per. months to help them in their integration.
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In a report published on Monday, the General Inspectorate of Social Affairs (Igas) underlines the
"clearly identified dangers"
represented by accommodation in a children's hotel entrusted to the ASE:
"the poor quality control of places of reception, in addition to the overcrowding in the rooms, the isolation
(educational staff and ASE correspondents being very unevenly present),
the manager's weak de facto surveillance, the proximity of trafficking places ”
, write its authors .
Consequently, they consider that this type of accommodation should
"be used only in exceptional circumstances, as a solution of last resort and for a very limited period"
.
This can however sometimes be
"more than six months or even a year"
, they note.
The Igas recommends
“drastically reducing the use of hotels”
and
“encouraging the development”
of alternative solutions.
"I will announce decisions very soon to put an end to this situation which compromises the well-being of the children concerned"
, reacted Adrien Taquet in a press release, calling this type of accommodation an
"unbearable reality"
.
According to the report, at least 5% of the nearly 150,000 children entrusted to the ASE (excluding young adults and direct placements) are permanently accommodated in hotels.
Thus, according to the Igas,
"the total number of minors entrusted to the ASE and lodged at the hotel could be between 7,500 and 10,500"
, 95% of them being unaccompanied foreign minors, known as unaccompanied minors (MNA ).
This phenomenon is
"concentrated in a few departments, mainly Ile-de-France and the south of France," he
adds.
Three departments, not mentioned in the report, among the twenty-nine that answered a questionnaire from the mission, account for 62% of hotel accommodation.
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This report, as well as another published two weeks ago and confined to Hauts-de-Seine, had been requested by Adrien Taquet a year ago, after the murder, in December 2019, of a 17-year-old teenager. entrusted to the ASE, by a 15-year-old, both placed in a hotel in Suresnes (Hauts-de-Seine).
"Let us be honest, these children who find themselves at the hotel, it is also the admission of our failure, the inability that we had to take care of them"
, had lamented at the time the Secretary of State .
The investigation broadcast Wednesday in "Exhibits" followed a previous report, which, in January 2019, had caused a shock wave and aroused many political reactions, showing alarming shortcomings of the child protection circuit , including mistreatment in homes.