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French border police regularly abused refugee children: Oxfam
[Al Jazeera] Children as young as 12 and other vulnerable refugees and migrants have been physically and verbally abused by French border guards, international human rights organisation Oxfam said on Friday. Citing witness statements, Oxfam accused French police of repeatedly withholding food, water and blankets from underage refugees who crossed the border into France from the Italian town of Ventimiglia, where some 16,500 refugees currently live. "French police officers are not upholding international standards," Oxfam's Chiara Romagno said in a statement. "They taunt children and mistreat them. Some children have had the soles of their shoes cut off before being sent back to Italy," she added. "Jean-Francoise, why you cuttin' the soles of the shoes of those kiddies?" "Gonna make soup." The report said children complained about being "physically and verbally abused, and detained overnight in cells without food, water or blankets and with no access to an official guardian," all contrary to French and EU law. "In one case, a very young Eritrean girl was forced to walk back across the border along a road with no pavement carrying her 40-day-old baby," the report said. According to European law, unaccompanied children requesting asylum cannot be sent back to where they came from. Most of the refugees were fleeing persecution and war in countries such as Sudan, Eritrea, Syria and Afghanistan. "The French authorities do not recognise any of them as asylum seekers and push them back to Italy immediately after crossing, even though they are required by law to assess the situation of each child," the report, which is based on dozens of testimonies, says. Posted by: Fred 2018-06-16 |
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