Asylum seekers excluded from certain emergency accommodation arrangements to which they were entitled: the Administrative Court of Appeal of Marseille condemned the State for having illegally restricted the reception criteria in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d ‘Azur, according to a decision consulted on Thursday.
Several NGOs, including the Abbé-Pierre Foundation, Médecins du monde or Cimade, had taken administrative action in 2018, denouncing new criteria of “vulnerability” then applied by the State in this region of south-eastern France to allow asylum seekers to access a service called “Service plus asylum seeker” including, among other things, accommodation and social support.
Illegal sorting
According to the contested decision, only families “with children under the age of three, pregnant women over eight months with a supporting medical certificate” or “women who are victims of human trafficking or domestic violence” as well as people with a very serious health problem had access to this reception system.
A “sorting” denounced as illegal by these NGOs, who pointed out that these provisions have “led to depriving many people of accommodation and keeping many people on the street, including very young children”.