MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th June, 2020) The French authorities have failed to provide safety measures for two children, who had entered the French department of Mayotte illegally, during their deportation to Comoros, the European Court of Human Rights ruled on Thursday.
In November 2013, two children, who were 3 and 5 years old at that time, were among the passengers who traveled on a makeshift boat bound for Mayotte. The French authorities arrested all the passengers at sea. The children returned the same day to Comoros, and their father, who was living on Mayotte, was unable to contact them.
"The Court was persuaded that the administrative association of the two children with an unrelated adult had not sought to preserve the children's best interests but rather to ensure their speedy removal to Comoros. Placing them in a detention center could only have caused them stress and anxiety, with particularly traumatic repercussions for their mental state," the ruling from the ECHR said.
According to the court, the French authorities, "had not provided for the effective protection of the children and had not taken account of the situation that they risked facing on returning to their country of origin."
The children were born in Mayotte, but their Comorian mother was sent back to Comoros in 2011 with both of them, as she was unlawfully living in Mayotte. However, she then returned to the French archipelago after leaving her children to their grandmother.
The father of the two children has been residing in Mayotte since 1994 with a renewed temporary residence card.
The children were reunited with their father in August 2014, right after long-stay visas were issued to them. They have been living with their father since September 2014.
The ECHR ruled that France will have to pay 22,500 Euros (over $25,000) to the father and two children for moral damage.
