After a month of hunger strike, Stéphane Ravacley was taken to the emergency room yesterday. The artisan baker in Besançon has denounced for months the threat of escort to the border which weighs on one of his employees. Laye, originally from Guinea, although taken care of by Social Aid for Children (ASE) on his arrival, received for his 18 years an obligation to leave French territory (OQTF). More than 300,000 people have signed a petition supporting the baker’s approach to request the regularization of the young adult.
For Marie-Christine Vergiat, vice-president of the LDH, this story is revealing of a problem which concerns hundreds of other young adults. “We push these adolescents towards professional studies. They are oriented and trained by the ASE services and when they come of age, we want to dismiss them… The human toll is disastrous! »She denounces. She mentions Sekou, an apprentice cook in the Orne, and Souleyman, a permanent employee in a bakery in the Hérault, who can also see their lives change overnight, even though they have studied for years in France. , and no longer ties in their country of origin.
“A sad human and social waste”
“These situations are all the more unacceptable as these young people have already had extreme difficulties in accessing ASE services, when they were minors,” adds Marie-Christine Vergiat. The LDH accounts for almost 50% of refusals to take charge of unaccompanied minors who request it. The organization also denounces the systematic questioning of the minority of these children in exile. “In law, anyone who declares to be under 18 must be supported,” recalls the vice-president. Doubt should benefit children and assessments of their age should remain benevolent. “
In many departments, this is far from the case. And when they become adults, a new administrative course strewn with uncertainties begins, to which is added the permanent threat of the OQTF, which they received, at their 18 years as a birthday present. “This is how young people trained, qualified and integrated are expelled or find themselves reduced to clandestinity: a sad human and social waste”, deplores the LDH asking “that all minors engaged in a course of initial training or apprenticeship whether or not they have been covered by ASE, they benefit from a residence permit when they come of age ”.
