[EN] On January 23th 2015, the MEP Eva Joly (EELV) visited the “waiting area” of Roissy’s airport (Paris).

Eva JOLY had chosen to inform the police services about her visit and her wish to be accompanied by a journalist. Although the ministry of Interior has asserted its will to open the detention centres to the press, this possibility was refused even though it had been authorized in 2013. The requests of the ecologist Member of the European Parliament to get statistics on the numbers of detainees, deportations, asylum seekers, etc. also have been rejected.

At the end of this visit made with the NGO Anafé, Eva JOLY said:

” It is necessary to remind that the people who are in waiting area are detained without having committed any crime!”

[…]

“The presence of policemen of the Borders police during the interviews as long with the doctor that with the staff of the Red Cross, as well as the impossibility to speak to one detainee or with the OFPRA, makes me question not about what I saw, but on what I was not able to see during this visit of no more than two hours. Thus, it is impossible to know if the detainees are well informed about their rights, if these are respected, if their situation is actually submitted to a judicial review, if they benefit from services of adequate translation or of legal advices. The situation of unaccompanied minors is particularly concerning”

[…]

“At the end of the visit, we could discover the brand new but empty of the appendix of the judicial court of Bobigny. As ex magistrate, I can only support the judges of the liberties and the detention who refuse to invest this place. It would violate the principles of the law that to dispense justice within a place of detention.”

To see the whole press release (in French):

http://europeecologie.eu/Visite-de-la-zone-d-attente-de-Roissy-avec-Eva-Joly