From CAO to PRAHDA

The PRAHDA (Asylum Seekers’ Hosting and Accommodation Program) began to to be talked about in relation to the incease in asylum seeker’s deportations with the Dublin procedure to the country responsible for their application for asylum (the Dublin III regulation is used to determine the European country responsible for an asylum application, usually the country of entry into the European Union), because one of its tasks as defined by the public tender was published: “the preparation of the transfer of persons under Dublin procedure and follow-up, where appropriate, people placed under house arrest in the scheme “.

http://www.lemonde.fr/immigration-et-diversite/article/2016/11/08/la-france-se-prepare-a-expulser-plus-de-migrants_5027326_1654200.html

But a deeper reading of the tendering process shows that the target audience is that of the CAO’s (Reception and Orientation Centres – see here, here,  here and there), that is to say not only persons whose asylum procedure is ongoing, but also:

“The public eligible for the PRAHDA are:
– people of adult age who have not yet applied for asylum, but who have the intention of imminently filing an asylum application or are awaiting the formal registration of their asylum application at the related counter for asylum seekers ;
– an asylum seekers in the procedure waiting to be referred to the appropriate national structure to handle their situation;
– people under the Dublin procedure, who may be placed under house arrest, pending
their transfer to the state responsible for examining their asylum application. ”

As in the CAOs, people who have not yet applied for asylum have one month to make their decision :

“People who have not taken steps to register an asylum application within 30 days of their arrival in PRAHDA will be the subject of an order to leave  pronounced by OFII and shall be asked to immediately leave the structure. ”

The fate of asylum seekers in the Dublin procedure in the CAO’s is the subject of a double discourse by the Minister of the Interior. On the one hand, associations have been told orally that they will not be deported. On the other hand, the three circulars and instructions addressed to the Prefects ask them to carry out the Dublin deportations (see here, here and there). In practice, the practice consists of the house arrest of those deported outside the CAO,  Prefectures have very different practices, and the issue is the subject of complex games between associations and administration.

With the PRAHDA, which is believed to be the successor to the CAO system, the issue is is most directly resolved, the house arrest and preparation for deportation in the centres, in order to systematize the evictions of people under the Dublin procedure. Once the Minister has decided to award each of the 12 public contracts to a service provider, the provider has 6 months to open the agreed number of places, 3531 in total.

A public procurement clause provides for the opacity of the system and for controlling of access to the media, under the penalty of “termination of the contract due to wrongs of the holder”

“The holder shall refer the matter to the Ministry of the Interior for solicitation from the media.
The Contractor undertakes to enforce these obligations for all its personnel and, where applicable, to its subcontractors and its suppliers. ”

You can download the public tender for the PRAHDA here.