Gironde. Green light for new administrative detention center in Merignac

Its location was controversial. This Monday, the Minister of Internal Affairs decided. the future administrative detention center (CRA) will be established in Merignac (Gironde) by 2024. It will compensate for the current shortage of places in the New Aquitaine region. With this new CRA, storage capacity will be increased to 210 spaces, up from the current 70. CRAs are designed to receive aliens in an irregular situation to forcibly remove them to a country that agrees to receive them.

This new center in the metropolis of Bordeaux”It will therefore propose new measures to combat irregular immigration and strengthen our removal capacity, while reducing the escort missions of police and gendarmes in line with the aim of increasing their presence on public highways.“, Bovo’s press release states. “It is part of the National Plan to Build CRA Places, which envisages the creation of 3,000 CRA Places by 2027 following the passage of the Home Office Orientation and Programming Bill.»

The announcement of the final location of this center, which will be one of France’s largest CRAs in terms of places, was made on Monday after a meeting between Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin and Beranger, Secretary of State responsible for the environment. Couillard, MPs Eric Poulliat (Renaissance) and Frédéric Zgainski (MoDem), as well as Alain Anziani, mayor of Merignac and president of the metropolitan area, and Franck Raynal, mayor of Pessac. He clapped”victory after two years of collective mobilization“.

Exchange of land between the state and the metropolis

The exact location of this new detention center, which was planned back in 2019, however, caused controversy in the capital. A provincial site was initially chosen at Pesac, a city bordering Bordeaux. A choice that quickly angered many residents. Pessacais made a teamCRA is not there”, alerting the authorities to the residential areas of Montballon and Madran near the future center.

This collective, supported by the mayor of Pesak, demanded that the CRA be moved to another plot of land without immediate proximity to the dwellings. In May 2022, the president of the metropolis and the mayor of Merignac, Alain Anziani, finally gave consent for the detention center to settle in the Bioparc de Merignac, which belongs to the capital. a decision ratified by the capital council’s vote in July. The land in Mérignac where the CRA will be built will return to the state, while Pessac will become the property of Bordeaux Métropole.

But a shadow remains on the board. Deputy Eric Puliat (Renaissance) notes:great apprehensions about the effective implementation of this center“, showing “potential environmental litigation that would question the building’s legality“. Another collective of citizens,There is no CRA Bioparc“, also appeared. He rebels against the chosen place in Merignac and “invites all organizations, associations or citizens to join him in implementing all possible administrative measures” in order to “fail this project“.