“I do not blame him”, Lyes Louffok says today when he talks about his biological mother. Brutally torn from his foster mother, who had taken in him a baby, and who nevertheless wanted to adopt him, he was confronted for years with the violence of the children’s social assistance centers, who refused to occupy the child. bond with his biological mother, yet unable to take care of him. “I blame the absolute sacralization of blood rights in our country, which continues to take precedence over the interests of children”, he explained, Monday, November 15, after the broadcast on France 2 of Nobody’s Child, a fiction inspired by its history.
“When you are placed for 18 years, there are traces, and sometimes gaping wounds, which take a long time to heal. A placement sometimes means living on the margins of society.”
Lyes Louffok, former foster childon France 2
“I could have stayed in this [première] foster family if we had withdrawn parental authority from my mother, which would have been logical because she is under guardianship and therefore, under the law, legally irresponsible for the acts she commits “, regrets the young man, now a member of the National Council for the protection of children. And if Lyes Louffok recognizes a “awareness of social work professionals, specifically on this topic, who are starting to assess parenting skills”. However, mentalities do not change “not fast enough “, according to him, “because we still have very few withdrawals from parental authority”.
“I deplore the fact that not all children in care have the possibility of being assisted by a lawyer” in the procedures which concern them, continues Lyes Louffok. “When you are in front of the juvenile judge, when you are 5 years old, it is very intimidating. You have the impression of having committed an act that would be reprehensible. Every two years, I was dealing with a person. different“. Author in 2014 of the book In the hell of homes (ed. Flammarion), Lyes Louffok wishes to challenge the public authorities on the state of “child protection system” in France. Finally, he demands that all children in care retain their protection until the age of 21 and an independent national control body.