France was condemned this Thursday by the European Court of Human Rights for having placed in detention for eleven days a young Malian and her four-month-old daughter.
The ECHR considers that this detention measure was “excessive”.
The Court found that several articles had been violated: Article 3 on the prohibition of inhuman and degrading treatment, 5.1 on the right to liberty and security, and 5.4 on the right to have a judgment rendered promptly. on the legality of detention of the European Convention on Human Rights.
MD and AD v.
France - detention of a mother and her minor child at the administrative detention center n ° 2 of Mesnil-Amelot: violations of the Convention https://t.co/ZSSCxYgZO4#ECHR #CEDH #ECHRpress
- ECHR CEDH (@ECHR_CEDH) July 22, 2021
"Given the very young age of the child, the reception conditions in the detention center" and the length of the detention, France "submitted the child" then four months old, as well as his mother. "To a treatment which has exceeded the threshold of severity required by Article 3 of the Convention", considers the judicial arm of the Council of Europe.
The justice did not take "sufficient account" of his "status of minor child" before in particular "to order the extension of the detention", pin the Court.
This recalls that French law provides that the detention of a minor "can only be decided as a last resort and for as short a period as possible".
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France will have to pay 16,780 euros
France will have to pay a total of 16,780 euros to the mother and her daughter, the ECHR, which sits in Strasbourg, has decided.
The applicant, a Malian born in 1995, arrived in France on January 15, 2018 via Italy, to flee her country where she said she risked "genital mutilation" and a forced marriage, the Court said in its summary of the judgment. .
In July 2018, she gave birth to her daughter.
At the end of November 2018, with a view to being deported with her child to Italy, the country responsible for examining her asylum application due to the Dublin agreements.
She was placed in the administrative detention center of Mesnil-Amelot in Seine-et-Marne for 48 hours, the prefect of Loir-et-Cher citing "a significant risk of flight".
The young Malian, who had refused to board a plane to Italy, unsuccessfully challenged the order in court, which extended it by 28 days.
On December 6, his request for provisional measures was validated by the ECHR and the French government ended the detention after eleven days.
The young mother and her daughter were then taken care of by social services and benefited from temporary residence permits.
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