Every year, thousands of people are refused entry to France because they do not meet the criteria or because they wish to apply for asylum. They are then held in waiting areas located in airports, train stations, or ports. There are 98 such zones in France, the two largest ones being at Roissy Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports. They are places of confinement and deprivation of liberty, with a strong opacity of administrative and police practices. The vulnerability of women in these zones is increased by conditions of detention that do not consider their specific needs: sexist and/or sexual violence suffered during the migratory journey, limited access to necessities, non-separation between men and women.
Since 2019, the National Association of Border Assistance for Foreigners (Anafé) has been carrying out a project in waiting areas to strengthen foreign women’s rights and access to the law; to denounce the discriminatory practices they are victims of; and to focus their advocacy work on the issue of women in vulnerable situations at the borders.
Anafé – ASSOCIATION NATIONALE D’ASSISTANCE AUX FRONTIERES POUR LES ÉTRANGERS
For more than 30 years, Anafé has been working in waiting aeras and borders to help foreigners to have access to their rights. It operates in two ways:
Operational: legal assistance through duty offices, observation of hearings and practices, individual follow-up, visits to waiting areas, collection of information and testimonies, field missions, training, development of tools and litigation.
Advocacy: analysis, communication, awareness-raising, and advocacy (drafting and dissemination of observation reports, analysis and information documents, inter-associative work, awareness-raising and interventions with the competent authorities and national and international rights protection bodies).
