8,500 people crossed the Mediterranean to arrive on the island of Lampedusa, Italy. Lawyer Mireille Damiano reacts to the firm policy of the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin.
“We will not ignore respect for people’s rights”estimates Mireille Damiano, a lawyer in Nice who defends migrants, guest of France Bleu Azur on Wednesday September 20, about the migration crisis in Lampedusa, Italy.
Between Monday September 11 and Wednesday September 13, around 8,500 people arrived aboard 199 boats, according to the United Nations migration agency. This is more than the entire population of Lampedusa. In reaction, the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, declared on Tuesday September 19 during the 8 p.m. news on TF1 that France “will not welcome migrants” from the Italian island of Lampedusa. “It is not by welcoming more people that we will dry up a flow which obviously affects our integration capacities”he continued.
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“We cannot imagine that we would not welcome migrants, on the one hand, and then that would mean that France would not respect the rights of people who arrive, which is extremely serious, it is an effect sleeve”replies Mireille Damiano. “We must welcome both minors for child protection purposes and then asylum seekers. We will not ignore respect for people’s rights. For others who arrive, we must simply that their case is analyzed correctly, which in any case is not the case.”she continues.
Concerning the emergency reception of migrants, the mayor of Menton, Yves Juhel, proposed on Monday September 18 to make a municipal plot available to the State services and Civil Protection to accommodate “one hundred” of undocumented immigrants, while their application for residence permits is studied, he announced in a press release. They will be “supervised by a CRS company, without the possibility of coming and going on our territory”specifies the mayor.
“These are premises for deprivation of liberty”
According to the lawyer, the migrants “are locked up in algecos which are by definition extremely undignified and (…) they are places of deprivation of liberty”. She is concerned about the expansion of an emergency reception center: “Today, we are indicating this possibility of extending this emergency reception and what really worries me is that this does not change the qualification of the place. These are places of shelter, that means that they do not have access to a lawyer, they do not have access to defense associations, they do not have access to anything, which poses a problem. The State must do what is necessary with dignity and in the respect our rules.”
Mireille Damiano calls for a “permanent place of reception mainly for the most vulnerable people, that is to say minors. We are in an emergency today, and what we have been fighting for months is that it is impossible to apply for asylum at the border, even though it is planned. Let’s set up a certain number of circuits: we knew how to do it for Ukraine, all the same, and we don’t know how to do it for other nationalities ?”