On July 3, the organizations Utopia 56 and the Association d'Accès aux Droits des Jeunes et d'Accompagnement vers la Majorité (AADJAM, an unaccompanied minors advocacy group) released a joint report strongly criticizing the handling of unaccompanied minors (UM) in France. The report denounces the use of "subjective criteria" for age assessments, the abandonment of minors on the streets, unaddressed trauma, insufficient assessment of identity documents, and a lack of appropriate care facilities.

The survey was conducted between late 2024 and early 2025 in 53 NGO locations across 38 departments. The report points to "systemic failures," "administrative dysfunctions," and "major disparities" in the departments of mainland France in the reception and emergency temporary care of unaccompanied foreign minors.

In France, minority assessment and sheltering are the responsibility of the departments, and not the state.

Thus, "there are significant differences in treatment depending on where the young people arrive in the country," Angelo Fiore, a member of Utopia 56 and co-author of the report, told AFP. "This has serious consequences for building their future."

One in two minors recognized after appeal

Access to rights, which occurs "at random in the departments where unaccompanied minors arrive," also makes the recognition of their minority status more complicated and increases their vulnerability.

Every month, many people who declare themselves minors find themselves without protection and shelter after being declared adults by the departments. However, after filing an appeal, one in two minors is ultimately recognized as such by a juvenile court judge. During the processing of this appeal, which can last a year and a half, the young people are not taken into care by the authorities and are thus left to their own devices.

In recent years, the mission of the French child welfare system (ASE) has coexisted with the increasingly restrictive immigration policies of French authorities. French police have employed force to conduct expulsions from premises occupied by people claiming to be minors. According to the collective Le Revers de la Médaille, between February and May 2024, 828 young people were expelled from their homes in Paris.

These unaccompanied minors are mainly from Guinea, Ivory Coast, Tunisia, Bangladesh, but also from Gambia and Cameroon. Mostly boys, these young people have fled conflict, violence, poverty, or their own families. In 2024, the ASE officially protected 13,554 unaccompanied minors in France.

An unequal journey fraught with obstacles

While unaccompanied minors can request protection in their destination department upon arrival in France, their first challenge is "understanding where and how to access it," the report explained. There is a greater difficulty in identifying a contact person at night and on weekends. After a long journey of exile, often marked by violence, some young people have reported being refused care in some departments.

Yet the law requires departments to provide temporary emergency shelter for unaccompanied minors for a maximum of five days, renewable twice. Since 2013, the costs of care have been the responsibility of the departments, which can be reimbursed by the state, depending on the conditions. The amount amounts to 90 euros per day for 14 days.

In Paris, the France Terre d'asile association manages the assessment and shelter of these young people, within the Reception of Unaccompanied Minors (AMNA). "On average, we have 130 young people arriving per week," Béatrix Allan, director of the assessment service at AMNA, reported last April.

"Since 2015, we have observed a growing number of young people declaring themselves unaccompanied minors from different countries. While 1,500 young people presented themselves for assessment in 2015, this number rose to 10,500 in 2023. In 2024, we estimate the number to be at 8,500," the City of Paris said. Unaccompanied minors currently represent 30 percent of the children cared for by Paris, which, through its departmental responsibilities for child protection, allocates a total budget of 80 million euros to them.

"The year 2023 was marked by a sharp increase in the number of unaccompanied minors in care, as well as people presenting themselves as unaccompanied minors, leading to a saturation of reception services," the Directorate General for Social Cohesion (DGCS) said. Last June, the parliamentary commission of inquiry spoke of child social protection as a "system that is cracking on all sides" and in which unaccompanied minors are the "forgotten of the forgotten."

DGCS indicates that "state services are attentive to the situations and difficulties encountered by the departments" and "are fully mobilized to support them." In 2024, the creation of a "body for enhanced dialogue with the departments" and the government led to the identification of "seven priority projects," one of which focused on the care of unaccompanied minors.

But while the DGCS judges that there is "good appropriation by the departments" of the best practices guide published in 2019 by the Ministry of Solidarity to harmonize the processing of sheltering and assessments of minorities, the recent report concludes that the reception is far from equal across the country.

Some departments are in fact protesting against the reception and care system, which is coordinated by the Directorate for the Judicial Protection of Youth (DPJJ). Seine-Saint-Denis temporarily suspended the reception of new unaccompanied minors in 2011, as did Mayenne and Alsace in 2013. Even today, several departments are reluctant to fulfill this duty.

When contacted by the editorial team, the Alpes-Maritimes department, which has experienced a significant influx of migrants, including unaccompanied minors, from Italy over the past ten years, did not respond to our questions.

“The practices vary from one territory to another, which raises doubly serious questions about the treatment given to these migrant children in France,” the report emphasized.

Dysfunctions a source of danger

The conduct of social investigations intended to assess a person's minority status has also been criticized several times, notably in a 2018 report by the NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW). Associations are critical of the shortness of interviews, sometimes without an interpreter, as well as the almost systematic questioning of the authenticity of identity documents submitted. Age assessment is also based on "highly subjective" criteria, Angelo Fiore said. According to the associations, these are based on appearance and do not always take into account the trauma experienced and the stigma that can affect the person's physical appearance.

"The instructions given to evaluators are clear: any doubt about minority status must benefit the young person," the City of Paris explained. The city says it has created a platform to strengthen the skills of social workers through a legal hotline and training to enable better support for unaccompanied minors throughout their journey. It is largely on this social assessment that the president of the departmental council then bases his decision on the minority of an unaccompanied foreign minor.

While the law indeed stipulates that in cases of suspicion, the individual must be given the benefit of the doubt, the reality appears to be different. Nationally, the minority recognition rate has been steadily declining in recent years: from around 52 percent in 2016, it fell to 19 percent in 2021, and rose slightly to 23 percent in 2023.

Access to information and justice also remains difficult for unaccompanied minors, who do not always speak the language and are unfamiliar with administrative procedures. The appeal to a juvenile court judge, the only authority authorized to recognize minority status, to challenge a non-recognition of minority status is often overlooked by these young people.

Until the court's decision, the parliamentary commission of inquiry emphasizes, "the presumption of minority" must be guaranteed, and the presumed minor must continue to benefit from temporary care and support. The juvenile court judge has the power to order temporary placement during the investigation.

However, according to the March 2024 census conducted by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), one in three minors seeking legal redress was living on the streets nationwide. This proportion is likely underestimated. In situations of extreme vulnerability, many unaccompanied minors find themselves surviving on the streets, without any support. “Every day, ten young people are put out onto the streets and find themselves without protection,” including those with serious health problems or pregnant young women.

Yet, “in one out of two cases, they are recognized as minors after appealing to a juvenile court judge, sometimes after spending more than 18 months surviving on the streets,” the report explained. Of the 2,550 young people who applied to a juvenile court judge in 2023 following a refusal by the department, 1,550 were recognized as minors, amounting to 61 percent of cases. However, many remain excluded from the system and fall off the radar of child protection services. Others have reached adulthood in the meantime.

Associations, to which departments can also delegate the care of unaccompanied minors, play a crucial role in addressing institutional shortcomings in the accommodation, support, and schooling of unaccompanied minors.

Following the violent evacuation of the Gaîté Lyrique in Paris last March, occupied for several months by young migrants claiming to be minors, 27 of them received deportation orders (OQTF). According to figures published by La Cimade for 2023, 124 people who declared themselves minors but were considered adults by the administration were placed in administrative detention centers (CRA).

Despite the mobilization of associations and the publication of reports by NGOs and institutions, warnings and calls for reform have largely gone unanswered. On July 1, the highest French court rejected the request of 27 associations demanding that France bring its policy of sheltering and assessing unaccompanied minors into compliance with the International Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which it is a signatory. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has already condemned France for violating the Convention twice, in 2023 and 2024.