The summary judges of the Lyon administrative court rejected the request to close an administrative detention center located near Lyon Saint-Exupéry airport, while the Lyon bar denounces “unworthy” living conditions.
The judges considered that the request “does not fall within the powers of the judge ruling urgently”, explains the court in a press release, in that it “is based on the structural challenge of a political choice”.
They also “refused to order the Minister of the Interior to implement a series of measures relating to conditions of detention”.
The Lyon Bar Association had filed a request for interim relief, denouncing “unworthy” and “dehumanizing” living conditions in this center, known as CRA2, open in 2022. The Bar Association had carried out a visit there in February 2024.
Lack of doctors and poor access to care, insufficient food rations, “arbitrary” solitary confinement, “illegal” presence of psychiatric restraint equipment, omnipresent violence and lack of privacy are all “unacceptable attacks” which were observed, reported Me Franck Heurtrey, spokesperson for the order of lawyers, during a hearing on Monday.
He then denounced a site which “is like a prison” and “takes up the codes of the prison world”.
The judges noted that an agreement was concluded with the Hospices Civils de Lyon in September which provides for a minimum presence of doctors and the intervention of a psychologist.
They believe that the accommodation conditions “do not appear contrary to human dignity”, in particular with medical monitoring and access to the services of the French Office of Immigration and Integration or to the association Refugee Forum.
They also note the “need to be able to monitor detainees and have access to their entire room”.
At the hearing, a representative of the State judged the bar’s request to be “lacking a factual, precise and current basis”, in that it “is based on old reports which allowed developments within the CRA “, in particular concerning the offer and medical monitoring of detainees.
Pilot project costing 25 million euros and with a capacity of 140 places, CRA2 opened in January 2022 near a first center called CRA1, increasing the total capacity of the two units to 280 places.