PAF inaugurates new temporary
holding centre for illegal immigrants
MARIGOT--Police aux Frontières (PAF) inaugurated its new temporary detention facility, Local de Rétention Administrative, at its headquarters in the former Sous- Préfecture building in Concordia on Monday morning.
The facility allows authorities to hold ten illegal immigrants together either as individuals or as families for a maximum forty-eight hours pending repatriation to their countries of origin.
Previously PAF could only hold illegal immigrants for 24 hours before transferring them to an appropriate detention centre in Guadeloupe.
A fairly broad section of officials from the justice system, the State, PAF, and the Gendarmerie attended the inauguration together with President Louis-Constant Fleming and second vice-president Daniel Gibbs.
Commissaire de Police Isabelle Tomatis, the director of PAF in Guadeloupe, accompanied by Capt. Debreuve, Commissaire de Police and Director of PAF for Antilles Guyana, introduced the sober facility which comprises an entry hall, an interview room, two day rooms, one with a pay telephone, kitchen, three bedrooms with two tier bunks, and two bathroom/toilet facilities.
Inmates are allowed to have visitors, and consultations with lawyers.
Although the facility is bright, clean, and hygienic, security outweighs comfort and inmates have to pass through an airport-style metal detector on entry. All beds are bolted down to the floor so furnishings cannot be tampered with or damaged. In addition, light fittings are protected with hidden wiring, and bars and unbreakable glass are on the windows while very basic bathrooms contain squat toilets.
Commissaire Tomatis explained that the forty-eight-hour time frame will allow officials to carry out a deeper investigation as to why the foreigners were on the island, whether it was a simple case off illegal entry to the territory or if they had been employed illegally and by whom.
The second advantage, she added, is that illegal immigrants will be transported directly to Princess Juliana Airport for repatriation instead of going to Guadeloupe first.
Préfet Délégué Dominique Lacroix congratulated PAF and described the opening of the facility as “symbolic” and “important” in complementing the work against illegal immigration.
He also revealed that a new change in the law, already effective in France, but not yet in the overseas territories, will place the burden of paying for the repatriation of illegal immigrants on the persons who employed them and not on the State. This, in addition to the fines the employers will incur for breaking the law.
