French police held a 6-year-old girl for three days last week on suspicion that she had forged papers as she entered the country.
Paris airport police suspected that the girl had a fake passport and detained her at Charles de Gaulle Airport, reported the Guardian.
The girl's family lawyer, Sidonie Leoue, said the girl came from Cameroon and was traveling alone, but carrying with her all the necessary documents to enter the country. Her mother was waiting for her at the airport.
According to Leoue and the French interior ministry, the airport police thought the photo in her passport did not bear a resemblance to her, resulting in her three-day detention in a special police day care at the airport.
The Frech girl was given back to her mother after a judge ordered her release, reported Al-Jazeera.
The Paris-born girl was asked by a judge to identify her mother who was seated across the courtroom, the lawyer explained. She was also able to identify her teachers and classmates at a French school she attended.
"The judge said it was all a mistake," said Leoue. "It's inadmissible that minors are held there like this, especially for a reason such as this."
Interior ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet said police confiscated the passport for further investigation and analyzation of its validity.
Brandet said that "verifying the identity of a child, establishing with certainty the link between the [child] and the person traveling with them or waiting for them at the airport, is about protecting the child against trafficking, kidnapping."
He added that Red Cross staff are tasked to handle minors in such cases to assure that their stay is as calm as possible.
Brandet also announced that the minister issued guidance, advising police to act quickly in handling similar cases to avoid a repeat of the incident.
