After an inspection, the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence prefecture terminates a stay for disabled adults

Around a hundred adults with mental disabilities, from different regions of France, saw their holidays in Annot, in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, cut short by the prefecture, France Bleu Provence learned on Tuesday August 13.

This summer vacation was organized by the association “Cap Évasion”, based in Orléans. The stay was supposed to last three weeks. But after two weeks, the prefecture of Alpes-de-Haute-Provence ordered the end of the stay and the expulsion of the vacationers. The authorities’ inspection proved that the supervision of vacationers with mental disabilities was not sufficient.

Contacted by France Bleu Provence, the association acknowledged the disappearance of a holidaymaker, as witnesses had claimed. The man left the holiday village one evening at 9:30 p.m. and was only found the next day, at 6 p.m., in the mountains, two kilometers as the crow flies from the holiday village, according to their testimonies. “The police were not informed of his disappearance until 1:30 in the morning.”says a witness.

Another witness raised the alarm about incidents that occurred at the municipal swimming pool in Annot. “Three disabled adults nearly drowned, the lifeguard had to go and get them from the bottom of the water,” he says on France Bleu Provence. The association wanted to denounce a lack of understanding of disability on the part of the holiday village hosts and the residents of Annot. For its president, this lack of understanding could explain the prefecture’s decision to end the stay prematurely.