Depuis la décision du conseil général de Seine-Saint-Denis de ne plus accueillir de nouveaux mineurs isolés étrangers à compter du 1er septembre 2011, l’Etat, mis face à ses responsabilités, est sommé de soulager des départements au bord de l’asphyxie.
La Seine-Saint-Denis avait posé son ultimatum dans une lettre adressée au garde des Sceaux le 22 juillet 2011 : sans solution proposée par le gouvernement pour soulager le département de la prise charge des mineurs isolés étrangers (MIE), Claude Bartolone, président (PS) du conseil général de la Seine-Saint-Denis, refuserait d’accueillir de nouveaux arrivants à compter du 1er septembre. Face au silence de l’Etat, il a mis sa menace à exécution. En effet, depuis cette date, le département renvoie tout nouveau MIE vers les services de la protection judiciaire de la jeunesse (PJJ).
Situation intenable – « Je comprends parfaitement la position de Claude Bartolone, admet Patrick Kanner, président (PS) du conseil général du Nord et membre de la commission exécutive de l’Assemblée des départements de France (ADF). Nous sommes arrivés au bout du bout de ce que peuvent supporter les conseils généraux concernés par ces flux migratoires. Les travailleurs sociaux sont en souffrance, les établissements d’accueil saturés et la charge financière beaucoup trop lourde. Il est temps que le gouvernement prenne ses responsabilités ! » 
Car une dizaine de départements seulement concentrent les 6 000 MIE que l’on estime présents sur le sol français, Paris et la Seine-Saint-Denis en tête. Dans la capitale, 1 600 de ces mineurs sont pris en charge par l’aide sociale à l’enfance (ASE), ce qui, en 2010, représentait un budget de 70 millions d’euros. 
Et ils sont près d’un millier en Seine-Saint-Denis, pour un budget de 35 millions d’euros, projeté à 42 millions pour 2011. « A Paris, la situation est devenue intenable, confirme Romain Lévy, adjoint (PS) au maire chargé de la protection de l’enfance. De 800 MIE accueillis à l’ASE en 2008, nous sommes passés à 1600 avant l’été. Cela représente un quart des enfants suivis par nos services. Le maire de Paris tient à y mettre les moyens, mais jusqu’à quand ? Nos budgets ne sont pas extensibles et doivent rester à l’équilibre, contrairement à ceux de l’Etat ! » Et l’élu de dénoncer une politique migratoire absurde qui ne permet pas à des jeunes qui ont été formés durant leur passage à l’ASE, ayant une réelle volonté d’intégration, d’obtenir un titre de séjour à leur majorité.

Solidarité nationale – Dans son rapport sur les MIE (mai 2010),Isabelle Debré, sénatrice (UMP) des Hauts-de-Seine, préconisait de créer, au sein du Fonds national de protection de l’enfance, un fonds d’intervention destiné aux départements particulièrement confrontés à l’accueil des MIE. Mais le compte n’y est pas, loin s’en faut. « Sur les 102 millions d’euros que l’Etat doit à la ville au titre de l’accueil des MIE, nous n’avons perçu que 178 000 euros ! » s’insurge Romain Lévy. Il en appelle à la solidarité nationale. Pour l’heure, le gouvernement n’a toujours rien annoncé. « L’Etat est en train d’assécher l’esprit de la décentralisation en nous chargeant la barque, analyse Patrick Kanner. Mais il ne faut pas que ces enfants deviennent une variable d’ajustement de nos difficultés institutionnelles. » L’ADF a donc décidé de monter au créneau et de solliciter un rendez-vous avec le Premier ministre pour engager des négociations. (lagazettedescommunes.com)

En Seine-Saint-Denis, la situation est devenue ubuesque

« Cela m’arrache le cœur de dire non à ces mineurs isolés étrangers [MIE], mais je tiendrai bon. Je ne veux plus me contenter des promesses d’un Etat qui fait la sourde oreille depuis dix ans », s’insurge Claude Bartolone, président (PS) du Conseil général de Seine-Saint-Denis. Suite à son refus d’exécuter les décisions de placement des MIE à compter du 1er septembre, Claude Bartolone a été contacté par le Garde des Sceaux, qui, pour calmer le jeu, lui a d’emblée annoncé une réunion interministérielle entre l’Intérieur, la Justice et la Cohésion sociale pour le 5 septembre, évoquant même un projet de loi en préparation. « Mais depuis cette date, il est aux abonnés absents », déplore Claude Bartolone, et cette fameuse réunion ne semblait figurer sur aucun agenda…
Foyers pour mineurs délinquants – De son côté, la protection judiciaire de la jeunesse (PJJ) de Seine-Saint-Denis, un service de l’Etat vers qui le conseil général oriente désormais tout nouveau MIE, s’est rapidement trouvée débordée. « Nous sommes en situation de blocage », regrette Francis Monge, directeur territorial de la PJJ de Seine-Saint-Denis. Entre le 1er et le 9 septembre, 25 enfants ont été reçus par le service éducatif auprès du tribunal (SEAT) : huit ont été placés dans les foyers pour jeunes délinquants de la PJJ, dix ont pu être orientés vers les secteurs habilités. Les autres ont été priés de revenir le lendemain, faute de place. « Tous nos moyens sont dédiés aux mineurs qui nous sont confiés dans un cadre pénal, en alternative à l’incarcération. Sur le département, nous ne disposons que de trois foyers de douze places, réservés aux mineurs délinquants. Nous avons fait un geste, en accueillant huit MIE, mais en quatre jours, nous étions déjà saturés ! » explique Francis Monge, qui admet les limites d’une telle cohabitation.
Communiquer par gestes - Quant au SEAT, il fait de son mieux pour orienter ces enfants démunis. « Jusqu’au 8 septembre, nous n’avions pas d’interprète. Nous ne pouvions communiquer que par gestes ! souligne Francis Monge. Nous avons dorénavant accès au service d’interprétariat du tribunal, mais cela ne suffit malheureusement pas. Il nous manque un éclairage pour évaluer correctement les situations d’urgence. » Une mission qui était dévolue à la plate-forme d’évaluation du conseil général, et qui a cessé de fonctionner depuis le 1er septembre. Aujourd’hui, la PJJ appelle de ses vœux la réouverture de ce service. Mais Claude Bartolone, qui entend lancer un signal fort au Gouvernement, peut difficilement revenir en arrière.(lagazettedescommunes.com)
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20:30

Accueil des mineurs isolés étrangers : les départements lancent un cri de détresse

Depuis la décision du conseil général de Seine-Saint-Denis de ne plus accueillir de nouveaux mineurs isolés étrangers à compter du 1er septe...
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Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says he will consider the Prime Minister's bill to allow offshore processing, but has reiterated his objection to her Malaysian solution.
Julia Gillard has won the support of the Labor Caucus to push ahead with the Malaysian people swap deal despite a stinging High Court defeat.
She is now mounting pressure on Mr Abbott to back Labor's bill which will go before Parliament next week, describing it as a test of his leadership.
"It is a test as to whether he is guided by the national interest or is always guided by his political interest," she said.
Ms Gillard says Labor is determined to enforce the Malaysian solution and reopen a processing centre on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea.
But the amendments would also allow a Coalition government to restore its Nauru option.
"Malaysia offered the best answer to the issue of asylum seekers and people smuggling then. It offers the best answer now," she said.
"These amendments will be broad in nature. They will enable the government of the day to design and implement its best solution."
Mr Abbott says the Coalition will consider any legislation the Government puts up, but in the meantime continues to pan Ms Gillard's plan, saying Malaysia is offshore dumping not offshore processing.
"The Malaysian people swap is a proven policy failure. Nauru is a proven policy success," he said in a statement.
"Only the combination of Nauru, the reintroduction of temporary protection visas and a willingness to turn boats around where it is safe to do so will stop the boats."
'Nothing to negotiate'
Immigration Minister Chris Bowen reminded Mr Abbott that a decade ago Labor offered bipartisan support to the Howard government when it introduced offshore processing.
"The legislation that we will introduce into the Parliament will seek to return the Migration Act to the previous understanding of both sides of the Parliament from 2001 to 2011," he said.
The Government is yet to spell out how it proposes to change the law.
"We will brief the Opposition on the wording of the amendments," Ms Gillard said.
"On the principle though, there's nothing to negotiate. The question for Mr Abbott here is a crystal clear one: Does he believe executive government should have the power to implement its policy on asylum seekers and refugees?"
Like Mr Abbott, Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison is hedging his bets.
"The Coalition has always supported offshore processing. We have the patent on it, but we don't support offshore dumping," he said.
"We'll fashion our response once we've see the Government's bill. At the moment we haven't got that bill so there is nothing to respond to."
'Unholy alliance'
Greens leader Bob Brown says his party will not be supporting any amendments that allow offshore processing.
"This is a developing unholy alliance between the major parties, and the Greens are here now to advocate... the publicly wanted position of Australian voters who would otherwise be left high and dry on this matter."
Ms Gillard has made a point of telling her party's Left faction - which sought a return to onshore processing - that the Government believes in honouring the United Nations refugee convention.
"This is an innovative proposal that brings together the maximum possible deterrence effect to smash what is truly an evil - people smuggling - while holding true to the refugee convention," she said.
The Government also argues that processing asylum seekers' refugee claims in Australia would be very expensive.
"That impact would be in the order of $4 billion over the forward estimates if we return to the sorts of arrivals we've seen in previous times," Mr Bowen said.
The Immigration Minister also wants to change the law so he can send unaccompanied minors to Malaysia or Papua New Guinea.
As the law stands he is their guardian and the High Court stopped him from sending them offshore.
Mr Bowen suggests guardianship could be offloaded to another minister.
"That is of course something the Government will consider down the track. There are a range of options," he said.
"But clearly whoever is the guardian, the minister for immigration must have the ability to apply discretion to appropriate removal." (abc.net.au)
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14:53

Abbott to consider offshore processing bill

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says he will consider the Prime Minister's bill to allow offshore processing, but has reiterated his obje...
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Now the Gillard Government has decided to adopt a legislative response to the High Court's August 31 judgment in the M70/M106 cases, how can amendments be adopted that will keep the proposed Malaysian solution alive?
The Government has flagged its intention to amend both the Migration Act and the Immigration (Guardianship of Children) Act so as to return the law to the 'understandings' that existed prior to August 31. These amendments will most likely be introduced into Parliament during the next sitting week. The options with respect to the Migration Act are fairly straightforward. The crux of the High Court's decision was that the Minister's declaration that Malaysia was a suitable country to which non-citizens could be sent for the assessment of their asylum claims was a 'jurisdictional fact' reviewable under law. Accordingly, the Minister could not simply make a decision based only upon a political judgment or assurances from Malaysia that it would deal with the asylum seekers in a certain way. Rather, these were legally ascertainable facts reviewable by a court.
A key provision is section 198A of the Migration Act, particularly sub-paragraph 3 that lists criteria the Minister needs to take into account when making a declaration. These could simply be removed, thereby allowing for considerable Ministerial discretion in making a declaration. The effect of such action would be to effectively make the decision a purely political one that was not subject to judicial oversight by the courts. An alternative - and one that may appease the Labour backbench - would be to make the Minister's declaration contingent on ascertainable facts. These could include factors such as whether the country in question was a party to the Refugee Convention, or whether Australia had entered into an agreement with that country in which they undertook to receive persons claiming asylum and that their claims would be processed in that country. These elements would be objective in nature and allow the Minister to refer to easily identifiable criteria in making a judgment as to the suitability of a country for offshore processing. Importantly, these types of amendments would be broad enough to encompass countries which are a party to the Refugees Convention or about to become parties, such as PNG and Nauru, or countries which have entered into agreements with Australia for offshore processing, such as Malaysia.
The much more difficult task would be making amendments to the Immigration (Guardianship of Children) Act. This is a relatively old statute; one that was introduced at the time of post-war British child migrants coming to Australia. However, the Act has been amended so that it specifically deals with the situation of the so-called 'non-citizen child' who is under the age of 18, has entered Australia as a non-citizen, and intends to become a permanent resident. All of these criteria apply to unaccompanied minors making their way to Christmas Island with the assistance of people smugglers. Importantly the Act provides that the Minister is the guardian of these non-citizen children and accordingly under section 6A of the Act they can only leave Australia with the Minister's consent. This was the pivotal provision for the High Court in the M106 case argued in parallel to M70. The High Court found that as the Minister had issued no declaration in the case of certain unaccompanied minors then they could not be sent to Malaysia. In other words, the Minister had not even turned his mind to the application of this Act to these children. At face value that would suggest this defect could be simply resolved by the Minister making a declaration with respect to unaccompanied minors, however the High Court also acknowledged, as now has the Commonwealth Solicitor-General, that any such declarations would be subject to judicial review. However, amendments to this Act are not as straightforward as those to the Migration Act. While it may be possible to make clear that declarations issued under the Migration Act prevail as between the two Acts, there are also certain common law obligations of guardianship upon the state in the case of minors whose parents are not exercising control. Australia's obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child are also applicable. In 1995 the High Court famously ruled in the Teoh case that there existed a legitimate expectation on the part of citizens that the Convention would be taken into account when administrative decisions were being made with respect to children. That case is silent as to the right of non-citizen children, however Article 3 of the Convention makes clear that:
In all actions concerning children, whether undertaken by public or private social welfare institutions, comuch more difficult task would be making amendments to the Immigration (Guardianship of Children) Act.urts of law, administrative authorities or legislative bodies, the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration.
Circumventing these legal hurdles would only be achieved by complex legislative amendments which more than likely would be tested by future court challenges. While all of the political attention to date has been on the Migration Act, there are real questions as to how the Immigration (Guardianship of Children) Act can be amended to achieve the Government's desired policy outcome. This poses a major dilemma for the Gillard Government as if offshore processing cannot be fireproofed from legal uncertainty, the ultimate policy objectives will fail for the simple reason that any loophole that exists with respect to unaccompanied minors will be quickly exploited by the people smugglers.(abc.net.au)

Donald R. Rothwell is Professor of International Law at the ANU College of Law, Australian National University.
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14:49

The complex business of saving Gillard's solution

N ow the Gillard Government has decided to adopt a legislative response to the High Court's August 31 judgment in the M70/M106 cases, h...
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Immigration officials have confirmed 14 unaccompanied children were on board the latest asylum seeker boat to arrive on Christmas Island.
The boat carrying 72 asylum seekers was intercepted by Australian authorities on Friday and is the first since the Federal Government's people swap deal with Malaysia was scuttled by the High Court.
The Immigration Department has confirmed there are 54 single men in the group, one woman and 14 asylum seekers claiming to be unaccompanied minors.
The asylum seekers will have health and security checks on Christmas Island and they will be processed in Australia.
Federal Cabinet and caucus will meet on Monday to settle on a new policy after the High Court rejected the Malaysia swap deal.
Yesterday Attorney-General Robert McClelland told ABC's News 24 the Migration Act could be amended to allow offshore processing.
"We believe an amendment is appropriate. Obviously the Cabinet and caucus have to consider these issues but yes we believe that an amendment is desirable to put offshore processing beyond doubt, we think that should be done," he said.
Defence Minister Stephen Smith has rejected suggestions the Government's decision to overhaul asylum seeker laws means it does not care about how asylum seekers are treated.
"We went to the last election with a commitment to effect offshore processing together with a regional framework, a regional arrangement but its clear that to pursue that there needs to be legislative change," he told ABC1's Insiders.
The Government has signalled Nauru is unlikely to be part of its new asylum seeker policy.
Immigration Minister Chris Bowen has released financial estimates that revealed it would cost just under $1 billion to process asylum seekers on Nauru over the next four years.
"So we know that Nauru is an ineffective option, now we know it's an expensive one as well," he said.
Mr Bowen stopped short of ruling out Nauru completely, but said the new advice proved it was no silver bullet for people smuggling.
However, Mr Bowen said he is still negotiating with the Opposition in the hopes of reaching a bipartisan position.(abc.net.au)
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18:21

14 children on latest asylum seeker boat

Immigration officials have confirmed 14 unaccompanied children were on board the latest asylum seeker boat to arrive on Christmas Island. T...
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Ongoing combat between Sudanese troops and a militia from South Sudan has forced some 20,000 people to flee into the neighbouring Ethiopia, which is also playing host to Somali famine refugees in the southeast.
The conflict between the Sudan Armed Forces and some members of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (North) is happening in the Blue Nile State, which is part of (north) Sudan. The violence has added thousands more people to the 245,000 Ethiopia is already sheltering (not including new arrivals from Somalia to the Gode area or from Sudan to Benishangul-Gumuz).
Some of the refugees brought their livestock and personal property with them in case the fighting became protracted, preventing an early return to their homes. However, though the situation remains volatile, many refugees, says the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), have chosen to remain near the border so as to be able to quickly return and harvest crops or tend to animals when possible. Others wish to remain near the border and not transfer to camps further away until they are reunited with the families.
UNHCR spokesperson, Fatoumata Lejeune-Kaba spoke at a press conference at the Palais des Nations in Geneva yesterday.  Some of what she said was further reported on UN Radio. According to Ms. Lejeune-Kaba, Tuesday of this week brought to light a report that fighting in Blue Nile had recommenced.
On Tuesday, "4,000 people, and the largest number on a single day, crossed the border into Kurmuk, western Ethiopia," she said. Most of these were women and children, including some 200 unaccompanied minors. Some of these children may have become separated from their parents during the flight, but some may have set out completely alone.
Children separated from their parents during humanitarian crises are among the most vulnerable groups. They lack the care of their parents, who are usually their first line of protection. As such, they face the danger of abuse and other types of exploitation. Many of them will lose their childhoods, taking on responsibilities far beyond their years to care for their younger children or even fight for their own survival.
According to the Inter-agency Guiding Principles on Unaccompanied and Separated Children, "The breakdown of social structures and services accompanying major crises means that communities and States themselves may not be in a position to provide the necessary protection and care for children without families. It is therefore imperative that humanitarian organizations ensure that the most vulnerable children are protected."
The UNHCR's relief efforts, for which an appeal of $14 million is in the works, are being supported by the government, non-governmental organizations and UN sister agencies including the International Organization for Migration (IOM), World Food Programme (WFP) and the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF). Refugees arriving at reception centres in Kurmuk, Bamza, Gizen and Teibe are receiving dry food rations. The UNHCR has also procured 5,000 family sleeping tens, kitchen sets and plastic sheeting in addition to 10,000 blankets and 7,500 sleeping mats.
In an effort to provide emergency shelter to incoming refugees, the UNHCR and its partners are constructing a new camp in Tongo at one of three sites allotted by Ethiopia's government. Like the other two camps, Tongo will have the capacity to house 10,000 people.
There are also 35,000 families who have been internally displaced in Sudan itself from the Blue Nile State's capital of Damazin.(soschildrensvillages.ca)
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18:16

Sudanese Refugees, including Unaccompanied Children, Cross into Ethiopia

Ongoing combat between Sudanese troops and a militia from South Sudan has forced some 20,000 people to flee into the neighbouring  Ethiopia...
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