Ocean Viking: Faced with legal chaos, migrants are virtually all free

Justice is overwhelmed, Friday, November 18, because of too many migrant files to process after the Ocean Viking arrived in Toulon a week ago. The legal chaos provokes strong reactions.

Little by little, the reception center for migrants at Ocean Viking is emptying. Of the 234 people who arrived a week ago in Toulon (Var), this evening, Friday, November 18, there are only about fifteen left detained on the spot. The others are free, supported by associations or delivered in nature. Indeed, after four days spent in the center, only a court decision could allow the authorities to maintain them by force.

180 files to be processed in 24 hours

However, the judges were overwhelmed by the arrival of 180 cases to be processed in a single day. “It would have required almost 10 or 15 courtrooms at the same time, as many clerks, as many interpreters (…) and in fact, we do not have that available like that within 24 hours” , explains Benoit Porteu de la Morandiere, president of the bar of Aix-en-Provence. For the opposition, this is an opportunity to denounce the government’s migration policy.