A collective of association presidents denounces in a Le Monde op-ed the collapse of public funding for supporting exiles, especially in mental health. These brutal cuts threaten welcome and care structures, while budgets for migration control rise. The victims are vulnerable survivors of violence and conflicts.
In an op-ed published on October 22, 2025, in Le Monde, a collective of association presidents warns about budget cuts affecting welcome and care structures for exiled people. These public funds, particularly in mental health – designated a 'national great cause' –, are collapsing in a 'heavy silence'. The budgets of associations working at the intersection of care, law, and welcome are being slashed brutally, arbitrarily, and without explanation.
Credits from the Ministry of the Interior are halted or reduced, while local government subsidies vanish. The first victims are the most vulnerable: women, men, and children in exile, survivors of conflicts, violence, and torture. The collective describes these measures as the 'methodical killing' of an essential sector, a 'frontal attack' on solidarity structures.
The figures highlight the urgency: nearly 70% of exiles have endured violence – war, torture, sexual violence, detention –, according to the Committee for the Health of Exiles. One in five suffers from severe mental disorders, such as psychotrauma and depression, per the Institute for Research and Documentation in Health Economics. Without care, these conditions worsen, become chronic, promote isolation, and hinder social integration.
Undermining these specialized structures is called an 'act of violence' and 'medical, economic, and social nonsense'. Associations rely on mixed models including public funds, volunteering, and donations. The state's disengagement triggers a domino effect: loss of experienced teams, reduced capacity, increased wait times, and closures. The collective sees this as a 'deliberate political choice' weakening field actors, invisibilizing suffering, and overloading other structures, or leading to outright abandonment.