foreigners in administrative detention centers released due to a problem with access to telephones

Several illegal foreigners in the Lille-Lesquin administrative detention center have been released, reports Le Figaro, Sunday February 4. Their court-appointed lawyer, Eric Kuchcinski explains to the daily that he pleaded for their release after a decision by the Douai Court of Appeal on Thursday. An Algerian under obligation to leave French territory (OQTF), placed in the Lille-Lesquin administrative detention center, was released due to access deemed insufficient to the center’s telephones.

As reported by BFMTV, the Code of entry and stay of foreigners and the right to asylum provides that the foreigner placed in an administrative detention center “can communicate with his consulate and any person of his choice”. Each detention center must have one freely accessible telephone for 50 foreigners. “The President of the Bar intervened, he established a report at the beginning of December to note malfunctions in terms of telephone access” in the Lille-Lesquin detention center, Lille bar lawyer Olivier Cardon told BFMTV. “This week we raised the irregular access of detainees to the telephone”he added, noting that “The problem of a destroyed telephone has existed for several months. The administration has not carried out the work to put it back into service.”

The prefecture appeals

Asked by Le Figaro, the Northern prefecture ensures that two-thirds of telephones “are now functional”. For areas of the center without functional telephones, “mobile phones are made available to those detained, who therefore all have the possibility of calling their loved ones whenever they wish.” adds the prefecture.

“The prefecture will appeal the judge’s decision, and we will be attentive to this specific point of law that needs to be clarified,” she announces to Figaro.