[JoeSixPack1]

The girls, all born in France, had rarely left their flat in La Monnaie, a poor housing estate, and had never got further than the lobby.

Doesn't this statement contradict itself?

[elli1]

Doesn't this statement contradict itself?

I took it to mean that once in a blue moon they left the apartment but had never gotten outside of the apartment building.

[saquin]

"The girls, all born in France, had rarely left their flat in La Monnaie, a poor housing estate, and had never got further than the lobby."

Doesn't this statement contradict itself?

No, their flat is their apartment. So they rarely left the flat, for other parts of the building (to the lobby to get the mail? other things?) but never got out of the building itself. That's what it sounds like to me. If so, that's shocking. So that means these 10 and 13 year olds have never been outside??

[A knight without armor]

I agree with those who say the girls just never left the building itself.

But this sentence amazes me: "Social services acted after the eldest rang a child abuse hotline last summer on the advice of a social worker she met outside the flat."

I wonder how that came about. The social worker must speak Arabic. I wonder if the neighbors called the agency because they were concerned about the girls or if it was a chance meeting. I bet the neighbors are moos also and it took a courageous person, most likely a woman, to secretly call the authorities.