“The budget allocated to unaccompanied minors will represent 26 million euros in 2021. It is a colossal sum.
I do not advertise it too much because it is an incredible fuel for the National Gathering.
Jean-Louis Thiériot, departmental councilor (LR) and former president of the Seine-et-Marne assembly, does not hide his embarrassment.
Behind this modest label of “unaccompanied minors” hides a sad reality.
These are foreign children who arrived on French soil without being accompanied by their parents or any adult.
They come from Africa.
They are on their own.
Some are the prey of mafia networks which exploit them.
When they are entrusted to it, the departmental council, which assumes their parental authority until they come of age, has the duty to take care of and support them.
Read alsoSeine-et-Marne: the Empreintes association follows one in two unaccompanied minors
"The department comes at the end of the chain", deplores Jean-Louis Thiériot.
“Out of approximately 670 unaccompanied minors that we follow, 400 to 500 are entrusted to us by the State which imposes a situation on us while financing very little.
The State participates only up to 50% of the cost.
The Seine-et-Marnais pay half of the support [of these young people] ”, regrets the one who now sits in the National Assembly in addition to being elected to the department.
The figures put forward by the RN considered "joking"
Because the sinews of this war is money. “The allocated budget is too large,” denounces Aymeric Durox, RN candidate for the canton of Nangis. The hard-right candidate made his own estimates. And it is far from the figures announced by Jean-Louis Thiériot. According to Aymeric Durox, the budget allocated to unaccompanied minors “represents 40 to 50 million per year. This amount should be compared to the 7 million euros devoted each year to the protection of heritage, to the 15 million euros allocated to the environment ”.
Jean-Louis Thiériot disputes the RN figures.
“We have never exceeded 33 million euros
(Editor's note: it was in 2019 when the department recorded nearly 800 MNA while in 2015 the budget was 11.5 million euros)
.
Which is already a lot.
But the figures put forward by Mr. Durox are puzzling.
"
Even if he refuses to talk about too much expenditure, the elected representative of the Republicans party explains that his majority "put things back on track" when he was at the head of the departmental executive.
“We went, per unaccompanied minor, from 150 euros per day to 77 euros.
(…) We have made sure to find structures that welcome them at the right price.
"
For his part, Bernard Cozic, vice-president of the departmental council in charge of solidarity, is not in favor of bringing up the subject of social assistance to children through the prism of its cost.
“I find it hard to talk about money.
It is about giving children every opportunity to become future Seine-et-Marne like you and me.
"
"Aging frauds are considerable"
On the left, we demand that the departmental majority take its responsibilities.
“Solidarity is at the heart of the department's skills.
The board must assume its powers.
The majority cannot constantly cry over the financial issues or else it is dispossessing the authority of its prerogatives, ”insists Julie Gobert, socialist departmental councilor and candidate for her succession.
The same considers "stupid" the idea that unaccompanied minors are potential delinquents, an idea that she attributes to the National Assembly. For Aymeric Durox, this is all wrong. “We never said that! He says. But the candidate of the extreme right goes on quickly: “What we are saying is that among these unaccompanied minors, there are delinquents. In our department, they come by train from Paris and are involved in burglaries or attacks on people. For him, the question is to systematically perform bone tests to determine their age. Except that it is not the department alone that can decide or impose such a coercive measure.
On the right, we confirm that this issue of the age of unaccompanied minors is a real problem. "Frauds at age are considerable", punctuates Jean-Louis Thiériot. These are foreign adults who would present themselves as minors in order to benefit from support. “It is estimated that there would be 70% of attempted fraud. But once the fraud attempts are ruled out, the departmental council treats these minors like other minors entrusted to Social Assistance for Children (ASE), ”continues Jean-Louis Thiériot.
PS candidate, deputy mayor of Pontault-Combault and employee of the Empreintes association which welcomes unaccompanied minors, Sara Short Ferjule insists on supporting minors once they reach the age of majority.
“It's difficult to work on integration if there is a breakdown in care.
The work that has been accomplished cannot continue.
"The candidate explains that" in other departments,
young adults
contracts
exist.
We would like to offer the same in the department.
Such contracts exist but this remains marginal.
"
The department "condemned" by administrative justice
The summary judge of the administrative court of Melun, in 2018, imposed on the department to continue to finance an unaccompanied ex-minor who has become of age until the end of the school year.
This decision was confirmed by the Council of State.
A court decision that Julie Gobert puts forward to support her opinion that the departmental council does not do everything it takes in matters of unaccompanied minors.
Support for unaccompanied minors is part of the more comprehensive system of Social Assistance to Children (ASE) which welcomes minors placed under the responsibility of the departmental council by a judge's order.
These are cases where children suffer from serious educational gaps or even abuse from their parents and which must be protected.
According to the 2020 report of the departmental council, 3,179 children were followed by social assistance for children, including 685 unaccompanied minors, or just over one in four children.
The council notes that their number has declined, after a sharp increase.
“After strong growth between 2016 and 2018, driven by the increase in the reception of unaccompanied minors, and stabilization in 2019, spending in the children's sector fell by 3.4% to reach 166.9 million euros (compared to 172.8 million euros in 2019).
"
According to the latest report from the Chamber of Accounts dating from last November, the budget allocated in 2018 by the departmental council to child welfare amounted to 179.9 million euros, or 119 euros per inhabitant.
Which places the department in the national average.