France in focus

In France's Loire Valley, castles are relying on the magic of Christmas to secure their future. Each winter, historical landmarks are turned into festive, fairy-tale settings, drawing tens of thousands of visitors. But beyond the lights and decorations lies a pressing challenge: how to preserve these iconic sites in the face of mounting structural and financial woes. Watch moreFrench castle of Chambord celebrates five eventful centuries Chambord, a UNESCO World Heritage site and the largest château in France's Loire Valley, spans 5,500 hectares and includes 426 rooms and 77 staircases. This year, the estate invested a record €200,000 in Christmas festivities, with the aim of generating up to €1 million in revenue. These funds will help maintain this vast and fragile giant. While Chambord has undergone many restorations over the past 500 years, one of its most urgent projects still lies ahead. The Francis I wing has been closed to the public since 2023 for security reasons as it's at risk of collapse. Built on marshland, the château is increasingly affected by climate change: façades are leaning, floors are sinking and cracks continue to widen. Overall damage is estimated at €37 million, including €12 million needed for emergency work. The Christmas event is just a sparkle in the fight to save Chambord. A public fundraising campaign is currently underway, with renovations expected to begin in 2026. Watch moreFrance's iconic Chateau de Chambord gets a makeover Loire Valley's smallest château hosts its first ever Christmas Just 20 kilometres away from Chambord, the smallest castle in the region is embracing a more intimate and sustainable approach. Troussay has belonged to the same family for 125 years, spanning four generations. It's the first time its owners are opening the château to the public during the festive season. With handmade decorations, a recycled nativity scene competition and the support of friends, the aim is to keep costs low while maximising fundraising. The money raised will go towards urgent roof cleaning after three consecutive years of heavy rain and humidity. Despite receiving state funding, resources simply aren't sufficient. The château is therefore exploring creative new ways to finance its preservation. One castle, 57,000 owners Other sites are experimenting with entirely new economic models. Over the past eight years, the start-up Dartagnans has raised more than €8 million from 57,000 co-owners around the world, helping to save four ruined castles, including La Mothe Chandeniers. Abandoned for nearly a century after a fire in 1932, the château was rescued in 2017 through a pioneering crowdfunding campaign. Read moreGlobal crowdfunding campaign buys French château Rather than restoring it completely, the co-owners chose to preserve its wild, romantic character. Nature has reclaimed the site, with trees, ferns and wildlife now living in the ruins. Only the Lord's room, in the clock tower, will be restored and converted into a guest room, while the rest of the château will be secured and left frozen in time. Every year, the co-owners are invited back to witness the progress made and to share in the festive spirit.

In France, the mental health of young people has deteriorated in recent years, particularly since the Covid-19 pandemic. In this edition, we met several young people suffering from mental health struggles, who shared their stories in the hope of overcoming taboos. With one third of young people in France suffering from a mental health disorder, we take a closer look at the effects on their day-to-day lives. Adolescence is a sensitive period, "the age of all dangers" according to many psychologists, where teenagers navigate profound changes.  Read moreWhy is Australia banning children under 16 from social media – and can they enforce it? The mental health of many young French people has deteriorated in recent years, particularly since the Covid-19 health crisis. The rate of hospital admissions for suicide attempts and self-harm has skyrocketed, particularly among young girls. Increasing numbers of teenagers and young adults are suffering from depression, anxiety and eating disorders. Schizophrenia and bipolar disorder usually develop between the ages of 15 and 25. Indeed, 75 percent of chronic psychiatric illnesses appear before the age of 25. Watch moreInside a French emergency psychiatric unit: Social stigma, a lack of beds and drug shortages As the French government pledges to tackle mental health struggles, we met with several young people suffering from some of these disorders. These youngsters were willing to tell their stories with the hope of overcoming the taboos that still surround mental health issues.

Could Shein be suspended in France? The Chinese giant is under growing scrutiny for selling controversial products, including childlike sex dolls and bladed weapons. The ultra-fast fashion brand has just opened its first physical store in the BHV, one of Paris's iconic department stores. French fashion brands denounce what they call unfair competition in an already weakened sector: one in two fashion retailers is facing serious financial difficulties, with 37,000 jobs lost in the last decade. We take a closer look.

Ten years after the November 13 Paris terror attacks, France's security and intelligence services are dealing with reports of increasingly younger individuals who often become radicalised quickly via social networks. Through rare access inside the police's radicalisation telephone hotline, as well as interviews with terrorism experts, a former prisoner and a survivor of the Bataclan attack, we explore the lessons learnt since 2015 and what the terrorism threat looks like today.

With the Grand Egyptian Museum set to open in Cairo, we explore the enduring passion of the French for Ancient Egypt. With its hieroglyphics, pyramids and mysteries, the land of the pharaohs fascinates young and old alike. Exhibitions showcasing its ancient treasures are always a hit. So where does this passion originate from? We take a closer look in this edition of France in Focus.

With nearly 85,000 inmates for a capacity of only 62,000, French prisons are overflowing. In this rare documentary, our cameras were able to enter the Grenoble-Varces prison, which is regularly singled out for its unsanitary conditions and overcrowding. In this detention centre, inmates are sometimes crammed three to a cell measuring only nine square metres. With inhumane conditions, exhausted prison staff and record reoffending rates, the French prison system seems to be nearing breaking point. We take a closer look.

Fortnite, Valorant, and Rocket League tournaments are taking French stadiums by storm, drawing packed arenas and thousands of fans to spectacular shows. Esports is booming in France: the sector’s turnover has tripled in four years, clubs are becoming more established, and pro players are emerging as stars. Sonia Baritello, Olivia Salazar-Winspear, and Elodie Radenac followed the Vitality club during the Rocket League World Championships in Lyon to capture the excitement of this highly anticipated event. They also discussed the issue of gender equality in gaming with pro player Lou Henguelle during the Valorant World Championships at the Bercy arena in Paris.

At least one in five people in France suffer from a mental health condition. The issue has been named a priority for the government in 2025, which hopes to tackle a wide range of conditions, from mild symptoms to severe and chronic illnesses. Every day, psychiatric emergency departments in hospitals treat patients in distress, while operating in increasingly difficult conditions. To find out more, we spent time with the Ville-Evrard psychiatric unit of the Delafontaine Hospital in Saint-Denis, north of Paris. Fayçal Mouaffak is a psychiatrist who heads up the Emergency Psychiatric Services unit of Ville-Evrard in Seine-Saint-Denis. When he arrives at work, four patients are already waiting for him on stretchers in the emergency room corridors. All of them have spent the night there and one 18-year-old girl has already been there for three days. The hustle and bustle and noise of the ward often aggravates their symptoms. The author of "Diary of a Psychiatrist on the Frontline in Seine-Saint-Denis" starts his working day at breakneck speed, trying to find beds for them as quickly as possible while also providing the necessary medical care. A lack of space and staff shortages Finding beds for patients is a daily struggle for the psychiatrists. They spend a good part of their day making phone calls to get patients transferred. In 2023, there were 566,000 visits to emergency rooms for psychiatric reasons, an increase of 21 percent compared to 2019. At the same time, 8,800 beds have been cut in public hospital psychiatric wards over the past 15 years. These shortages are partly due to a lack of staff. Psychiatry is one of the least popular specialties among medical students. The CRUP, a solution to overwhelmed emergency rooms Stereotypes go some way to explaining this lack of interest. There are many assumptions about the patients. "People think psychiatry is a violent sector, but that's because they don't know any better. There is no more violence than anywhere else," says Nadia Cheffi, psychiatrist and head of the secure psychiatric emergency unit (known as CRUP in French) at Ville-Evrard. Psychiatry was her first choice for specialisation in medical school and she "has no regrets". Misconceptions also exist among healthcare professionals. "In discussions with our colleagues (...) we often see the old stereotypes come up: that psychiatry isn't really medicine," laments Dr. Mouaffak. However, he insists, "there are effective treatments, medical protocols (...) research is advancing rapidly (...) and there are also physiological factors involved in these illnesses." Dr Mouaffak was one of the initiators of this secure psychiatric facility (CRUP), a response to seeing patients waiting far too long in the emergency rooms of hospitals without specialised care. The CRUP opened two years ago within the Delafontaine Hospital. Patients have their own rooms, receive treatment in a much calmer atmosphere, and can stay for up to 72 hours. This gives doctors the time to stabilise their condition before they return home. Alternatively, they can be transferred to other wards for longer stays in hospital. Both the patients and their caregivers say it’s a real relief: "It makes what I do meaningful again," says Hakima, an emergency room nurse. Dr Mouaffak hopes to see this model adopted more widely. The Emergency Psychiatric Services unit of Ville-Evrard is set to open another CRUP within the Avicenne Hospital in Bobigny – also located in the greater Paris region – in the near future.

Since the start of the war in Gaza, France has welcomed several hundred Gazans to safety. Priority has been given to families of children seriously injured in bombings, such as Ayham, who lost both his legs at just 15 years old on October 14, 2023. Artists and scientists have also been evacuated through the PAUSE program, which supports intellectuals in exile. Dr. Fadel Afana joined a team of psychiatrists at Sainte-Anne Hospital in Paris, while Gazan rapper Abu Joury was evacuated with help from the Al Kamandjati association in Angers. Florence Gaillard and Mohamed Fahrat met with each of them to share their stories. As war rages in Gaza, some of its citizens are beginning new lives in France. Abu Joury spent his entire youth in Gaza – he got married, built a music career, and buried his father there. But when the conflict erupted, he was forced to flee advancing Israeli troops. For months, he moved from one refugee camp to another, until he learned his wife was pregnant. At that moment, he knew they had to escape the Gaza Strip by any means necessary. Dr. Fadel Afana is among the fortunate selected for the PAUSE program, which supports artists and scientists in exile. With his background in psychiatry and experience treating post-traumatic stress in war zones, he joined a team of doctors at Sainte-Anne Hospital in Paris. For him, the mental health crisis among Gazans has become an urgent emergency. Seventeen-year-old Ayham arrived in Lyon with his father in January 2024, his life forever changed. A few months earlier, he lost his older brother and both legs in a bombing. Though he continues to receive regular hospital treatment, Ayham has begun walking again with the help of prosthetics and rehabilitation. Though his dream of playing professional football is no longer possible, he remains determined to fulfil new hopes for his future.

The fall of Phnom Penh to the Khmer Rouge in 1975 was the beginning of a genocide that would claim up to 2 million lives. Among the hundreds of thousands of Cambodians who fled the horror, many found refuge in France. But 50 years on, what remains of their memories? We take a closer look in this edition of France in Focus. "It may seem excessive, but in a sense we died that day because everything that was true the day before changed overnight." These words by Phouséra "Séra" Ing, a Franco-Cambodian artist, resonate like a painful echo of the countless lives pierced by war, genocide and exile. Through the testimonies of survivors and their descendants, this episode of France in Focus explores the struggles of exile and the transmission of memory. How do survivors speak of the unspeakable? How do their children grow up with a legacy of silence and things left unsaid? From the French embassy in Phnom Penh to Thai refugee camps, from villages in rural France to the suburbs of Paris, this film traces these journeys of exile and reconstruction. We meet Séra, who found a way to heal his wounds through comic books; Sambo, who took 15 years to feel at home in France; and Virak, who discovered his father's story late in life. Each of their stories reveals the difficulty of bringing generations together to discuss a collective trauma. As a memorial to those lost in the Cambodian genocide is unveiled in France, survivors are finally learning to speak freely and heal. Because as Sun-Lay, president of the Fragmentis Vitae Asia Association, reminds us: "Memory is the remedy for the pain of the present."

This week, France in Focus is shining a spotlight on the father of modernist architecture, on the 60th anniversary of his death. Franco-Swiss master Le Corbusier laid the foundations for a new epoch, with his revolutionary 1923 book "Towards an Architecture" acting as a blueprint for architects to this day. Le Corbusier is best known for his avant-garde urban housing projects, like the Cité Radieuse building in Marseille. The UNESCO World Heritage site attracts over 70,000 visitors a year. Outside of France, he created large-scale cities like Chandigarh in India, and inspired renowned architects Oscar Niemeyer and Lucio Costa when building the new Brazilian capital Brasilia. But his architectural aesthetic was not always showered with praise, with critics calling his urban housing projects soulless. Over the last decade, evidence has also surfaced showing that Le Corbusier had alleged ties to fascist groups and spent time with the French collaborationist regime in Vichy during World War II. FRANCE 24's Jennifer Ben Brahim looks at what made Le Corbusier one of the most revered but also reviled architects of the 20th century.

Last year's summer of sport shone a light on the French capital's iconic monuments, with many Olympic events taking place in or around Parisian landmarks, to the delight of spectators around the world. But the Olympics came with a pledge: that the event would improve conditions in districts like the Seine-Saint-Denis department, the poorest in mainland France. So has this promise been fulfilled? FRANCE 24's Sonia Baritello and Olivia Salazar-Winspear report. Located just outside Paris, the Seine-Saint-Denis department is now home to a state-of-the art swimming pool, with championship diving facilities. The aquatic centre cost €175 million and is supposed to serve the local community. We went to find out if this infrastructure is truly accessible to all. One year after the Games, the Athletes' Village and the Media Village in Seine-Saint-Denis have been repurposed to provide housing in a city where demand for apartments is sky high. Thousands of homes have been created there for prospective buyers, social tenants and local businesses. Yet this urban regeneration is not yet fully complete, leaving many residents wondering if and when the neighbourhood will really feel the benefits of the 2024 Olympics. 

To mark the centenary of his birth, France in Focus looks back at Frantz Fanon's extraordinary career: a volunteer at the age of 18 to fight the Nazis, a committed writer against racism and colonialism, a visionary psychiatrist and a campaigner for Algerian independence. Frantz Fanon, an anti-colonial and anti-racist icon, didn't hold back. During his short life, he spared no effort to fight for, as he put it: "the cause of the people, the cause of justice and freedom." World War II: The Awakening At just 18 years old, he left his native Martinique to voluntarily join Charles de Gaulle's Free French Forces. The young soldier was decorated for his service, risking his life to fight the Nazis. But the recognition was superficial: Black people were subjected to racism, both in the military and in civilian life. He felt disillusioned – in France, his heroism mattered less than the colour of his skin. Years on the 'mainland' After studying medicine in Lyon, Fanon published his first book. "Black Skin, White Masks" examines colonialist constructs, in an attempt to break free from them. That same year, he completed his psychiatry internship at Saint-Alban, in Lozère, alongside François Tosquelles. This Spanish anti-fascist political refugee introduced him to an innovative practice of social therapy – a means of treating mental health patients with dignity. Life in French Algeria In 1953, Fanon was sent to French Algeria. At just 28, he became chief physician at the hospital in Blida. Following Tosquelles's principles, he transformed his department and revolutionised what was at the time a racist and morally bankrupt form of colonial psychiatry. At the same time, he became involved in the Algerian revolution, treating wounded fighters. In December 1956, he resigned from his hospital position and moved to newly independent Tunisia. There, he continued his work as a psychiatrist, contributed to the FLN (National Liberation Front) newspaper El Moudjahid, and represented Algeria at Pan-African conferences. Fanon would not live to see the outcome of his struggle. He died of leukaemia in 1961 at the age of 36, one year before Algeria gained independence. A hundred years after his birth in Fort-de-France in 1925, Fanon remains a powerful anti-racist and anti-colonial reference for intellectuals, artists and activists around the world.

This week, France in Focus explores the "Bétharram scandal", named after the Catholic school in southwestern France where hundreds of pupils were subjected to physical, psychological and sexual abuse for decades. The perpetrators of these crimes were never brought to justice, despite complaints lodged as early as the 1990s. Our colleagues at franceinfo investigate. Warning: Viewers may find this report disturbing. Watch moreBayrou and Bétharram: Did French PM lie? Did he cover up sex abuse? Today, the vast majority of the cases are ineligible for prosecution due to the statute of limitations. But victims are still demanding accountability, notably from current Prime Minister François Bayrou, who was education minister at the time and a high-ranking local figure.  A French parliamentary commission was appointed in March and the findings of its inquiry will be published shortly. Our colleagues at franceinfo have been looking into the case and hearing from the victims first-hand.

Ahead of the United Nations Oceans Conference in Nice, our reporters went to meet some of the French scientists working to better understand and preserve the ocean. From high-tech robots 6,000m below sea level to critical mineral exploration in the Pacific, the team takes a look at some of the initiatives across the country. They also explore how cuts to climate change projects in the US are having an impact in France.

This week we delve into the life of Jules Verne, one of the world's most widely translated writers. The French author's "Extraordinary Voyages" include "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea", "Around the World in Eighty Days" and "Journey to the Center of the Earth". They continue to inspire fans of adventure stories, 120 years after his death in 1905. Many consider Verne to be one of the founding fathers of science fiction, while others see him as a visionary. Those familiar with the man himself speak of a tireless worker, with an unparalleled gift for making his ideas accessible to all and, with the help of his publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel, a creator of imaginary worlds that are still part of the cultural landscape today.We discuss Verne's life and legacy with Jean Verne, his great-grandson; Céline Giton, author of "Jules Verne: an Extraordinary Animal Anthology"; Agnès Marcetteau-Paul, author of "The very curious Jules Verne"; and Pierre Stépanoff, director of the Maison Jules Verne in Amiens.

After the fall of France in 1940, the clergy welcomed Marshal Pétain as a saviour. But when Jewish people started being rounded up in the summer of 1942, Protestant pastors and Catholic clerics spoke out against the deportations. Their words broke the silence of the institutions and encouraged the Resistance, while schools and convents opened their doors to Jewish refugees. In the spring of 1940, the French army was defeated by the Wehrmacht, and Marshal Pétain agreed to collaborate with the occupying forces. Among the measures taken by his Vichy-based government was the "status of Jews", on October 18. The law excluded Jews from public life and many foreign Jewish refugees were also rounded up in internment camps.As early as the summer of 1940, some French people were compelled to commit to a moral and spiritual Resistance.This was the case of Pastor Roland de Pury in Lyon, who declared from the pulpit on July 14: "France would be better off dead than to sell itself."His words echo the sentiments of Bruno de Solages, rector of the Institut Catholique in Toulouse, who took in refugees from all over Europe, issuing them with student cards to enable them to obtain false papers and go underground.Yet the real turning point came in the summer of 1942, when the large roundups began. Volunteers working in the internment camps near Toulouse alerted the archbishop to the mistreatment of the Jewish people, as they were directed on foot into cattle cars. Monseigneur Saliège wrote a letter, which he sent to be read aloud in every church in his diocese, denouncing the deportations and appealing to Christian morality.In Lyon, on the night of August 28-29, 1942, the Amitié Chrétienne association organised the largest rescue of Jewish children in France, thanks to the protection of Cardinal Gerlier, Archbishop of Lyon. Cardinal Gerlier, who had supported Marshal Pétain in 1940, refused to hand over the children to the Prefect of Lyon, who was directing the deportations. Spiritual power in defiance of the powers that be: the Lyon Resistance amplified this act, making it a pivotal event.Cardinals Saliège and Gerlier were not targeted by the authorities because of their age and rank in the Church, but many men and women of the cloth were arrested for their moral Resistance. Roland de Pury spent more than five months incarcerated at Fort Montluc in Lyon. Others, such as Solages and three priests from the Institut Catholique in Toulouse, were sent to camps in Germany. They wrote first-hand accounts of their deportation in a collective publication entitled "Pèlerins de bagne" or "Pilgrims of the penal colony". Many of their fellow prisoners never returned.

Faced with American uncertainty surrounding the war in Ukraine and the future of NATO, Europe is looking to wean itself off US defence. France has promised to ramp up spending, putting its industry into overdrive, but what are the financial and recruitment issues? From the factory floor to AI engineers, our reporters went to meet the companies that are trying to rise to the challenge. 

Paris's status as a cosmopolitan hub for artists from all over the world was forged in the 20th century, particularly in the postwar period, when it was seen as a beacon for Black artists and intellectuals fleeing colonisation, racism and segregation in their countries of origin. The "Paris Noir" exhibition at Paris's Pompidou Centre is now exploring that pivotal moment when the French capital served as a crossroads for the major Black figures who were debating and designing a post-colonial future. The show features 350 works by 150 artists of African heritage – many of whom have been historically sidelined or forgotten – in an attempt to re-write these "unrecognised and fundamental" contributions into a more complete history of art. In this programme, we meet American musician and composer Josiah Woodson, whose move to Paris 12 years ago broadened his artistic horizons, collaborating with artists from West Africa and the Caribbean. He tells us why author James Baldwin was a "major poetic and ideological inspiration" in his own trajectory, and why stepping into the footsteps of legendary trumpet players like Miles Davis was an important part of his transatlantic shift. Author and journalist Yasmina Jaafar explains why African Americans, in particular, chose Paris in the context of 1940s geopolitics and cultural trends.The growing popularity of jazz was one of the major draws for the many Black musicians who performed in Paris in the post-war years. One of the key venues in that effervescent scene was Le Bal Blomet: established in 1924, it is the oldest jazz club continuously operating in Europe today. Its director, Guillaume Cornut, tells us how the local Martinican community would organise informal concerts and gatherings in the 1920s, which gave rise to its nickname "Le Bal Nègre", and how the dancehall became renowned for the diversity of the music on offer.Historian Ludovic Tournès explains how differing attitudes to jazz in the United States and Europe meant that many African American musicians were keen to pursue their careers in Paris, where audiences and music industry figures demonstrated a respect and appreciation for the art form that stood in stark contrast to the reception many of these performers got in the segregated states of the American South.We meet Kévi Donat, whose guided tours of "Paris Noir" reveal the Black politicians, artists and writers who have been integral to the history of both Paris and France, but who have not always gone down in history to become household names. Kévi shines a light on some of the racist struggles that even a celebrated author like Alexandre Dumas came up against, and how a conference at the Sorbonne in 1956 distilled the growing consciousness of a "Panafrican" movement, uniting various Black communities on three continents.Artist Valérie John tells us why leaving her island of Martinique was a pre-requisite in the 1980s as she pursued her studies at art school in Paris. Having been commissioned to create a site-specific installation for the "Paris Noir" show, Valérie expands upon the concept of a Black Atlantic, and the potent symbolism this expanse of water evokes, explaining how the legacy of the slave trade has informed the Black experience in all of the colonies established at its edges.Finally, Alicia Knock, a curator of modern and contemporary art, discusses her efforts to fill a "major gap" in the Pompidou collection by putting together the "Paris Noir" exhibition and pushing for the acquisition of at least 50 of the pieces on display. She explains why the inclusion of these artworks will open a new chapter in the museum's history once it opens again in 2030, after the 50-year-old building undergoes extensive renovations.

In France, 400,000 children and young adults depend on the child protection system, known as the Aide Sociale à l’Enfance, or ASE. As FRANCE 24's Natacha Vesnitch and Claire Paccalin report, this institution is supposed to protect them, but its failures sometimes put them in danger. Lack of placements, separation of siblings, unsuitable structures, absence of psychological support, mistreatment – the list of shortcomings within the system is long. A parliamentary commission of inquiry presented its conclusions on April 8, after months of work investigating a system undermined by dysfunction and neglect. Maëva is 23 years old. She was 16 when she was placed in the ASE, France's child protection system. Mistreated by her mother, she asked to be placed in care. Originally from the Lille region, she was sent several hundred kilometres away to the department of La Creuse. She didn't know it then, but she was among 60 children who were placed in a network of unlicensed foster families. The two men running the network were sentenced in December 2024 during a trial in Châteauroux to several years in prison for multiple acts of violence and undeclared work. Seven years after her ordeal, Maëva has strong memories of arriving in the foster family. "Due to lack of space, I was told to stay in the caravan," she recounts. "It was filthy inside, and I had to relieve myself behind the caravan because at night, they locked the house." 'ASE was the biggest problem of my life'During this placement, Maëva was not enrolled in school. She heard little from her ASE caseworker, and weeks passed until the day the teenager decided to run away. "Bruno came to have a go at me in the caravan because I was talking too much and he wanted to take away my phone. He hit me hard and I fell. Then I locked myself in the caravan. I waited a few hours, packed some belongings and ran away."This time, Maëva had no intention of turning to the ASE system. She decided to manage on her own. It was the start of a downward spiral. "I destroyed myself," Maëva recounts. "Luckily, I woke up after four years, because many girls who do that end up badly."Today, Maëva believes that her time with the ASE left indelible marks. "ASE was the biggest problem of my life," the young woman concludes.Court-ordered placements not carried outSince 1983, child protection services have been managed by departments that are supposed to immediately implement protection measures ordered by judges. But in 2023, according to the Magistrates' Union, at least 3,300 court-ordered placements were not executed by the ASE.In Nantes, the Family Court Judge Marie Le Verre estimates that about 30 of her orders remain unenforced at any given time. This situation can have serious consequences, according to her. "The risk", she explains, "is that these children no longer respect the society that did not protect them."'Child protection in France is abusive. It can even be deadly'Lack of placements, separation of siblings, unsuitable structures, absence of psychological support, mistreatment, lack of oversight of placement locations – the list of failures within French child protection is long.Olivier Treneul is a social worker in the Nord department. He campaigns daily within the SUD trade union for the department to invest more resources in child protection. "Child protection is abusive, and that's why our colleagues are suffering," explains the union spokesman. "Child protection can even be deadly: we have examples all over France of young people who died in ASE care. There are stories in hotels, like young Lily who committed suicide in January 2024. The child protection system is not just failing, it's at breaking point, not because we don't know how to do our jobs – we do know. It's because the system was not prioritised."One in four homeless people born in France were in care as a childThis view is shared by many child protection professionals. Hamza Bensatem is a former foster child. He himself was a victim of abuse in the homes where he was placed. Today, he is director of Adepape 13, an association that helps young people leaving the child protection system. He regularly organises meetings with young adults who are worried about their future. And for good reason: since 2022, the law provides support for young adults formerly placed in ASE care, but in reality, many end up on the street. One in four homeless people born in France were in care as a child.