The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) condemned France on Thursday for failing to assist asylum seekers, who are forced to live “on the street”, “without any means of subsistence.”
“The French authorities have breached … their obligations” towards the plaintiffs, “victims of degrading treatment,” the Strasbourg Court said in a statement.
The plaintiffs were three men, an Afghan, a Russian and an Iranian, aged between 27 and 47, who were forced to “live on the streets, without resources”.
The European court awarded two plaintiffs 10,000 euros (about $ 11,300) and 12,000 (about $ 13,500) to the third to compensate for moral damage and “lack of respect for their dignity.”
In France, asylum seekers cannot work for the first six months after they apply, but can receive financial aid while waiting for a response.
However, the Court added that “it is aware of the continuous increase in the number of asylum seekers since 2007 and of the saturation” of the reception structures.
And he recognized “the efforts made by the French authorities to create additional reception places and to shorten the deadlines for examining asylum applications.”
But I consider that “these circumstances do not exclude that the situation of asylum seekers is such that it may pose a problem” in terms of respect for article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which prohibits inhuman and degrading treatment.
dsa-meb / zm
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