dec 11, 2012 - Press Release (La Cimade): Call for tender.
Description:
French authorities made another attempt to restrict the work and the voice of the NGOs. For example, the call for tenders required them to inform the governor of the centre should a detainee wish to file a case against the authorities. The association was also subject to a “duty of confidentiality” and “an obligation of discretion".
This attempt to restrict the freedom of speech of the NGOs could have resulted in hiding the practices of the police or perfectures of which foreign nationals may become the victims.
Repeated attempts to muzzle the work and the voice of the NGOs present in detention illustrate well the issues surrounding the contract for access to the rights of foreign nationals held in France. Renewed every three years, with ever stricter financial and regulatory restrictions, these contracts are a way of applying state pressure and control on the margin for manoevure of NGOs working in migrant detention centres, despite the resistance and independence which each fo them attempts to show in different ways. As the sociologist Nicholas Fischer demonstrates, detention has become institutionalised by making its critics part of the system, and keeping them under its thumb (www.lacimade.org/presse/centres-de-retention-le-gouvernement-taille-dans-les-droits/).
Added to timeline:
Administrative Detention
Research Internship
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