"When we see them, we don't look at them."
In
Abandoned Childhoods
(1), published on May 11, journalist Nadia Hathroubi-Safsaf recounts her exchanges with street children, aged 11 to 17 - boys mainly from the Maghreb as well as girls most often from French families. .
A reporter for twenty years, Nadia Hathroubi-Safsaf traveled through the Goutte d'Or district in Paris to meet these teenagers with an uncertain future.
Since the winter of 2017, at least 400 unaccompanied or unaccompanied minors have passed through this place, she points out in her book.
The editor-in-chief of the
Courrier de l'Atlas
(a monthly specializing in reporting on issues relating to the Maghreb in Europe) also approached members of associations and discussed with several political figures.
She denounces the bankruptcy of child welfare, the inertia of public action and the sometimes “doubtful” methods of some of her colleagues.
His investigation also began after reading an article in
Le Monde,
entitled “The girls adrift of Barbès” (published on March 5, 2021).
Later, Fatiha de Gouraya, president of the association SOS Migrants Mineurs, will depict a reality much more complex than what he exposes.
"She told me that the unclear passages on prostitution had given a bad image of girls in the neighborhood," says the author.
And there were several subjects in the subject: the question of girls, who are minors in Barbès, and often French runaways, but also that of boys, who come from the Maghreb.
However, when you read the article in
Le Monde
, everything was a bit mixed up.
Nadia Hathroubi-Safsaf aims to thwart prejudice.
"I wrote this book to restore dignity to these people who we see as migrants, before seeing them as children," she says.
Fewer girls
Full screen
In
Abandoned Childhoods
, Nadia Hathroubi-Safsaf investigates street children.
(2022.) Courtesy of La Grenade editions
Miss Figaro. -
In your book, you indicate that the presence of these unaccompanied minors is growing in the streets.
In France, their number rose from 8,000 in 2016
to 16,760 in 2019
, according to figures from the Judicial Protection of Youth (PJJ).
How to explain it?
In the Maghreb, rights are less and less respected.
So these boys come here to look for what they can't find elsewhere: freedom of movement, of doing business.
Those who have arrived in Europe, for example, stage themselves on social networks.
If others continue to come, it's also because those who have crossed over to the other side don't say how difficult life is here.
The new arrivals are struggling in particular to have their minority recognized.
This is also what shocked me: we do not respect the presumption of minority.
Some evaluators (
in charge of determining whether young people are indeed minors and isolated, so that they are placed under the protection of the child welfare service (ASE), Ed.
) say, "He's tall, he looks like an adult."
However, when you have lived on the street for two years, inevitably, your face is scarred.
You can't reverse the charge and say these miners are unmanageable to justify letting them wander.
Nadia Hathroubi-Safsaf
Do these teenagers pose any difficulties? If so why ?
Shopkeepers do not hesitate to solicit activists from associations such as Fatiha
(from Gouraya, president of the SOS Migrants Mineurs association, editor's note)
when they witness disturbing situations.
Without doing in otherworldliness, there are sometimes noise pollution and criminal behavior.
But it is precisely because they are left to their own devices, without any support.
We know that the street destroys, damages people.
There, we are also talking about minors who should be protected.
You can't reverse the charge and say they're unmanageable to justify letting them wander.
You have to reverse the prism.
They have many traumas related to exile, crossing Spain, violence in Morocco or here.
The inhabitants are certainly tired, but they also show empathy.
In Barbès, the socio-cultural proximity with the inhabitants is very important.
Paradoxically, it is civil society that really comes to the aid of these young people.
troubled nights
Where do these miners sleep, and how do they feed?
They sleep in squats, rather around 93. At one time, they also spent the night in Autolibs.
On a daily basis, these young people eat thanks to the solidarity of the people of the neighborhood.
Several merchants give them food or offer advantageous prices.
Associations such as La Table Ouvert carry out patrols and provide them with at least one hot meal a day.
Once again, these young people survive thanks to civil society, which collects clothes or gives them food.
On a daily basis, these young people eat thanks to the solidarity of the people of the neighborhood
Nadia Hathroubi-Safsaf
What are they doing with their day?
The associations ask that these young people benefit from day care in a dedicated centre.
Otherwise, they are on their own, at the mercy of offenders, and may commit criminal acts.
However, what the associations criticize the charities mandated by the mayor of Paris, supposed to mobilize street educators, is that we never see them on the ground.
Fatiha, president of the association SOS Migrants Mineurs, tries to organize meals for these teenagers, and hotlines to help them fill out documents.
How to explain the absence of these educators in the field?
The mayor of Paris finances associations, which themselves hire street educators.
But there is a very high turnover.
So, the associations also hire animators, who are not necessarily trained.
Young people told me that some of them locked themselves in their office and never came to the field.
Moreover, many do not speak Arabic.
The myth of the self-made-man
You explain in your book that street boys are more often from North Africa, while girls, exposed to multiple forms of violence, mostly come from French families...
There are far fewer girls.
They often come from complex French families.
These teenagers are in a situation of running away, of rebellion.
Their departure may be due to the remarriage of one of their parents, to the widowhood of one or the other, or to educational difficulties encountered by their family.
But the boys, qualified as MIE (
Unaccompanied foreign minors, Editor
's note ) or MNA (
Unaccompanied minors, young people under 18 who do not have French nationality and find themselves separated from their legal representatives on French soil, Editor's note
), in any case those who are in the 18th, come mainly from Morocco and Algeria.
They are fleeing a situation of misery, sometimes family abuse.
They also have, it is said too little, a desire elsewhere.
They believe in the myth of the
self-made-man
.
These teenagers are in a situation of fugue, rebellion
Nadia Hathroubi-Safsaf
Do girls from these countries also try to come to France?
These young girls also come to France, but through other networks.
They are then expected by families, to look after children for example.
It is almost modern slavery.
I met one of them, who came alone from Morocco.
She was extremely suspicious and did not speak to anyone.
It is true that it is much more dangerous for a woman to make the crossing hidden in a truck, driving through Spain.
When they arrive in France, they have generally usurped an identity with the help of a family, who use them as housekeepers.
But this is still very rare.
This was more the case in the 1980s and 1990s.
Today, they know what they are exposing themselves to.
On video,
Children of battered women, the forgotten
, a documentary to see on France 2
The dangers of the street
What dangers are street girls exposed to?
Rape and sexual assault.
Fatiha, from SOS Migrants Mineurs, watches over them a lot.
The volunteers set up on-call duty so that the girls can join them at any time of the night.
At the end of the book, I tell that two teenage girls were sexually assaulted.
They went to file a complaint, but Fatiha had to insist that they do so, because they said: "It's going to be our word against theirs" or "As we don't know them, we're going to file a complaint against X and that no use."
Fatiha also worked with them on the issue of consent.
The girls are protected by the group of boys
Nadia Hathroubi-Safsaf
Prostitution is also a danger that threatens these young girls. How do they escape it?
They are protected by the group of boys.
If a guy they don't know approaches the girls, they watch him out of the corner of their eye.
These young people recreate a humanity.
Besides, it's very funny to see them all together.
They “check” each other, worry about each other after a long absence.
There is a real empathy between them.
If there is one who is alone, others invite him to sleep in their squat.
They share coins to buy a sandwich.
After all, not everything is rosy either, there are conflicts between them, like in any group of teenagers.
Second chance
How can we effectively help these young girls and deal with their traumas?
We must help the associations and ensure that their fight is heard and recognized.
We also need to find places for minors in a home.
So yes, sometimes this is the case, but these establishments put in place rules that are too strict.
Young people try to comply with it for a fortnight, a month, then leave, because no training is offered to them.
They are separated from their friends and bored.
They have difficult life paths, they need time to adapt, but we don't give it to them.
And when they leave home, they don't get a second chance.
We have the impression that there is a will to let things happen, telling ourselves that these children will leave on their own
Nadia Hathroubi-Safsaf
You also mention the flaws in institutions in the book...
I'm not putting institutions on trial.
I had no prejudice when I started this investigation.
But what struck me was the lack of coordination between the State services, the departments... We get the impression that there is a desire to let things happen, saying to ourselves that these children will go away on their own.
Moreover, it is the inhabitants of the district who have pointed out the problem.
As the group of miners settled, the inhabitants alerted.
The problem has existed for six years.
The cat and the Mouse
How does it happen when justice decides that one of these young people must leave the territory?
It only does so when it considers that the person concerned is of legal age.
In these cases, the latter receives an OQTF (
Obligation to leave France, Editor's note
), but does not respect it.
She hides for a while, then returns to the neighborhood.
It's a game of cat and mouse.
For these children, returning to Morocco without having built something - without training in particular - would be a failure.
Some want to become mechanics, others hairdressers... But most dream of a life that, I know, they won't be able to know.
For these children, returning to Morocco without having built something - without training in particular - would be a failure.
Nadia Hathroubi-Safsaf
What happens to them as adults?
Many of them become delivery men.
Some do traffic, but that's really the case for a minority of them.
There are, of course, in Barbès.
But others get married - there is even one who will become a father.
They dream of building something.
They don't tell themselves they're going to sit there, watching people go by.
(1)
Abandoned
childhoods, by Nadia Hathroubi-Safsaf, published on May 11, 2022, Ed.
JC Lattès, La Grenade label, 200 p., €18