It’s a decision that makes the Northern prefecture cringe.
Saturday February 3, the Lille judge of freedoms and detention ordered the release of seven foreigners in an irregular situation - four Algerians, a Sudanese, a Moroccan and a Georgian - targeted by an expulsion order from the prefect, and placed in the administrative detention center (CRA) of Lille-Lesquin.
Illegal foreigners placed in the CRA are presented to the judge of freedoms and detention 48 hours after their placement;
then, after a period of 28 days, their detention can be extended, in which case they are presented to the judge again.
The seven illegal immigrants who were released on Saturday (out of nine people presented in total) fell into one or other of these situations.
In his considerations, the judge considered that the placement of the seven individuals in the CRA contravened the fundamental rights of foreigners, provided for by the Code of Entry and Stay, because they could not communicate freely with the people of their choice.
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The law provides that foreigners placed in administrative detention must have at least one freely accessible telephone for every 50 detainees.
However, several of the telephone booths at the CRA in Lille-Lesquin have been damaged in recent months by the occupants of the center.
This problem was noted in particular by two lawyers from the Lille bar, Me Olivier Cardon and Me Claire Perinaud, in a report after a visit carried out on December 1 at the request of the President of the Lille Bar Association.
Only one of the five areas in the 116-seat center had a functioning telephone booth;
in four other areas, the handset had been torn off.
Mobile phones nevertheless made available
The judge of freedoms and detention, considering the certificate of a humanitarian association approved to assist those detained, the SOS Solidarités group, therefore highlighted this problem of access to telephones to demand the release of these seven illegal immigrants defended by Me Eric Kuchcinski, their court-appointed lawyer.
But at the Northern prefecture, it is argued that in reality,
“two-thirds of the telephones have since been repaired and are now functional”
.
Furthermore, regarding areas where telephones are not functional,
“mobile phones are made available to those detained, who therefore all have the possibility of calling their loved ones whenever they wish”
.
An argument that, however, did not accept the judge, who wrote in his orders:
"it has not been established that since this testimony, the CRA telephones have been repaired, the administration being unable to provide a certification on this point to herself to justify the repair of the telephone booths
.
The Northern prefecture appeals
“The prefecture will appeal the judge's decision, and we will be attentive to this specific point of law that needs to be clarified”
indicates the Lille prefecture to Le
Figaro.
“We perhaps need to provide more evidence, but it is curious to write that the administration cannot produce a certificate itself
. ”
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The public prosecutor's office, whose appeal would have suspended the decision, did not appeal -
"it's always very complicated on weekends for the public prosecutor's office, because of the lack of staff"
whispers a fine connoisseur of the file.
Two of the seven foreigners released were placed under house arrest, the other five were fully released.
The same causes producing the same effects, the prefect's services fear that other foreigners will be released again this Sunday: seven other people held at the CRA of Lille-Lesquin will be presented again to the judge of freedoms and detention in the afternoon.