Guard at Migrant Center Had Finger Sliced off and Skull Hacked by Machete

Faysal, a night watchman in Toulouse, displayed “incredible courage” in early November when he confronted a group of men targeting a 17-year-old migrant girl, losing a finger and facing a serious blow to his skull in a machete attack. Outraged, he intends to file a complaint against the departmental council, believing it is not allocating sufficient resources to the facilities designed to protect at-risk minors.

On the night of November 3-4, two unassuming apartments in a renovated neighborhood of Toulouse, used as an annex to the emergency shelter for at-risk minors (CDEF), became a scene of bloodshed. Around 2:15 a.m., three men armed with “machetes and a butcher’s knife” burst into the hallway of the upstairs apartment. These assailants, who remain at large, were most likely looking for one of the residents, a 17-year-old girl, possibly linked to a child prostitution ring.

Upon encountering Faysal, the attackers plunged a machete into his skull, effectively scalping him.

Faysal’s account to Le Parisien is harrowing: “I managed to knock one of the guys’ machetes off his shoulder, but then the other one came into the hallway with the girl and put the machete to her throat. I saw the fear on her face.”

Faysal recognized the teenager, who had a history of running away. He realized that “the attackers came straight to her room; they seemed to know where to go.”

Faysal managed to use one attacker to throw the other off balance, luring them onto the terrace. A second blow from a blade, which he described as “60 cm long,” landed on his hand as he instinctively defended himself.

One of his fingers fell to the ground, another was severed, and a third was injured, reports Le Parisien.

Alerted by his cries and the screams of the girls, “The neighbors stuck their heads out of the windows.” The three men then fled. Faysal picked up his severed finger, applied an improvised pressure point, and called for help. Authorities activated the “severely traumatized victim protocol” for him, according to Toulouse Public Prosecutor David Charmatz, who noted that the investigation, entrusted to the organized crime division, has not yet clarified the motive.

Faysal, the only night watchman present that evening, stated: “It was barbaric; they came to kill.”

Virginie Joseph, director of the CDEF, sees the attack as the work of “criminal organizations, organized crime networks, that exploit vulnerable young people and target the professionals who work with them.”

The case may have very well had to do with the young woman owing money to the suspects, or perhaps her refusal to work for a prostitution ring.

Lucile Rozanes, director of the Action Teams Against Prostitution (EACP), expressed fury over the escalating situation: “It is estimated that there are at least 20,000 minors being sexually exploited, and at least half of them are under the care of child protection services, and whose advertisements are posted and amplified daily on well-known websites.” She added: “The phenomenon is exploding, and nothing is being done; there is no real political will to stop it.”

Faysal, who has worked for child welfare services since 2012, was aware that the cash possessed by some young people “don’t come from their families.”

He faces an extremely difficult job.

“We don’t have the right to prevent minors from leaving; that would be kidnapping. When they run away, we don’t know what they do. People come to get them, and sometimes they come back the next day,” he said.

He emphasized that the apartments, located on the site of a dilapidated villa slated for demolition, “are not suitable for these young people,” due to their proximity to the street, drug dealing spots, and bad influences.

Ten days after the horrific night, Faysal, suffering from pain and anger, has “no longer felt anything” on half of his skull, which was “scalped” by the blade and required 10 stitches. He has decided to file a complaint against the Haute-Garonne department, his employer.

His lawyer, Pierre Dubuisson, stated indignantly: “My client suffered an attack that could have cost him his life, and he is completely abandoned by an institution that, moreover, has failed to grasp the seriousness of the phenomenon: this proliferation of violent acts targeting minors and those supposed to protect them.”

The departmental council, when contacted, acknowledged working collectively since 2021 “to prevent” and identify prostitution situations. The Toulouse shelter “makes no secret of its powerlessness in the face of ‘an organized crime phenomenon that far exceeds the facility’s capacity to act,’” and has hired “additional security guards through a private security company” and ensured regular police patrols.

Since the attack, the two apartments in the cream-colored building have been emptied, and the residents transferred to other shelters.

While there are concerns over the security of migrant minors and vulnerable people, France is already spending billions on housing migrants, and in some cases, millions for just a small number of migrant minors. Insecurity is growing across the country, not just for those who are vulnerable.