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The labels given to migrant children and adolescents who have arrived in France without a family carry with them a history—which is also the history of successive waves of activism seeking to have their right to protection recognized. The responsibility to protect children on the part of the departments has been enshrined in law since the 2000s, but has been consistently challenged by numerous departmental councils. The establishment of a new national refuge system has not put an end to these challenges, nor has it resolved the state’s prevarications about the rights and status of these young people. Suspicion, dissuasion, and discrimination are too often still at the heart of procedures of refuge.