Le Mesnil-Amelot: foreigners in an irregular situation mutiny at the administrative detention center

The origin of the revolt remains unknown at this stage.

Violence broke out at the Mesnil-Amelot detention center (CRA) on Saturday evening between 9:30 p.m. and 11:30 p.m.

The largest CRA in France is located near the runways of Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle airport.

It currently houses 150 undocumented foreign nationals who are held there pending a court decision on their fate, most fearing deportation to their country of origin.

“Around thirty detainees rebelled and set fire to mattresses and furniture in two buildings, also attacking the police officers monitoring the centre,” said a Unit SGP police delegate.

Detainees are not detainees, if they do not have the right to leave the CRA, they can circulate freely inside the buildings and courtyards.

During this time, detainees went to the roofs of the buildings and others tried to escape by cutting the fences.

“They managed to gain the upper hand over the supervisors who had to put themselves in a secure place while waiting for the arrival of reinforcements,” he adds.

Read also Le Mesnil-Amelot: "What is happening in the detention center is very shocking"

Fifty police officers from the departmental directorates of public security of Seine-et-Marne and Seine-Saint-Denis, in particular from the anti-crime brigade, were mobilized.

On the spot, the officials managed to restore calm around 1 a.m.

In the end, the evening did not result in any escapes or injuries on the part of the police, but the fires caused numerous damage in the living areas of the detainees.

The firefighters also intervened to put out the fireplaces.

SGP police unit denounces the drop in staff

This is not the first time that riots have broken out at the site.

Last summer, three detainees managed to escape during a mutiny.

Six months earlier, foreigners had started a fire to protest against a court decision keeping them in detention because they had refused a PCR test, necessary for their expulsion from French territory by plane.

A situation linked to "the decline in police staff and increasingly difficult working conditions", denounces the SGP police unit union: "We have gone from 325 police officers assigned to the center in 2019 to 250 today".

In addition, “the profiles that pass through this center are increasingly dangerous, many have previously passed through the prison box.

»