PRESS RELEASE 09 NOVEMBER 2017

Young people declaring themselves unaccompanied minors:
place and function of the social service assistantOpinion of the National Association of Social Work Assistants on the treatment of young
people declaring themselves unaccompanied minors and the disturbing confusion betweensocial support and social control

ANAS denounces the treatment of young foreigners who declare themselves to be minors
accompanied by (MNA) and their difficulty in obtaining an adapted multidisciplinary global support(social, legal and medico-psychological) and to have their rights recognized.
Indeed, to be cared for by child protection, these young people are subject to a specificprocedure within which they are put in the position of having to prove the veracity about theirminority and their family isolation. For that, they are forced to a evaluation procedure which resultsin the transmission of a reasoned opinion to the chairman of the departmental. This procedure
combines: a "social assessment" conducted during one or several interviews and, if necessary,
forensic expertise (involving bone tests). The purpose is to check their age if a doubt persists.
ANAS considers that this arrangement is unacceptable from an ethical point of viewand ethical, both in the way it has been thought and in the context in which it is unfolds infact1.

1

Some of these points are also denounced by many actors, including:• The Defender of Rights, who has published several decisions and opinions concerning the UAM / NAM in
2016 and 2017, including opinion 17-03 of 7 February 2017 on the care of unaccompanied minors. On page 2,
this notice recalls that "out of all referrals dealt with at the headquarters of the Pole for the Defense ofChildren's Rights, about 15% concern the MIE. Defenders' delegates are also solicited as part of their on thissubject by young people, social workers or associations ".
• The Observatory for the Protection of Childhood, which published a thematic dossier in February 2017:"Unaccompanied minors, what needs and what answers?".
• InfoMIE, Resource Center for unaccompanied foreign minors, in articles published on the site
http://www.infomie.net/.
• UNICEF, in June 2016: "Neither healthy nor safe, investigation of unaccompanied children in the north of La
France ".
• The MIE collective which created the ADJIE (Accompaniment and defense of isolated young people), anecessary legal permanence in view of the difficulties encountered by young MIE / MNA or declaring
themselves MNA (members: Cimade, Collective of the exiles of Xth, DEI-France, Fasti, Gisti, Hors-the-Street,LDH, MRAP, Resf, and volunteers without associative membership).

15, rue de Bruxelles – 75009 PARIS – 01.45.26.33.79 – secretariat@anas.fr
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These include:••••••

Non-collection of informed consent prior to forensic expertise, unlike what the law requires,and a de facto pressure on those who refuse to submit to it because they would besuspected of majority.
The use of bone tests for the purpose of determining the age of which the total absence of
reliability is also recognized (margin of error of 18 months).
The maintenance on the street of many young people who, because of the congestion ofplaces accommodation, do not benefit from the shelter provided to carry out "the evaluation”
of their minority and their isolation. The processing of their file may take several months.
The announcement made by the Prime Minister during the Congress of the Assembly of
Departments de France on October 20, 2017 indicates that the State proposes to assume
the evaluation and emergency accommodation of persons declaring themselves to beminors until the relay is taken by the department if their minority is confirmed. No precision isyet brought to this new provision, but we can see there the denial of the necessity that theseyoung people fall under the protection of childhood as long as they have not proved theirminority, and thus a way of ratifying the discrimination they are already subjected to to otherchildren in danger.
The violence induced by this "social evaluation" which, because it is carried out in context ofcontrol, and not in a context of support or care, can not pretend to guarantee a benevolent
and containing framework. These conditions are indispensable to welcome and respect theword, the suffering, the temporality and the subjectivity of young people.
The confusion between social support and social control, by the diversion of function of thesocial service assistant and one of its tools, the social assessment.

With regard to this last point, ANAS recalls that the social assessment for the purpose ofcontrolling the age of young people declaring themselves unaccompanied minors is contrary to thevery aims of social support. It is the same for the transmission of a reasoned opinion that may harm
the human person, especially when it establishes that a young person is of legal age, therefore in an
irregular situation and legally expelled from French territory.
Indeed, Article 15 of the Code of Ethics of Social Work Assistants states: "The social service
assistant must not agree to intervene or provide information for control purposes".
Assessment for control purposes against young people declaring themselves to beminors unaccompanied is neither compatible with the place nor with the function ofassistant of social services.
The ANAS Child Protection Commission

15, rue de Bruxelles – 75009 PARIS – 01.45.26.33.79 – secretariat@anas.fr
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