Country Written report: Types of accommodation Last updated: xviii/03/21

Author

Decisions for admission in adaptation places for asylum seekers, likewise as for exit from or modification of the place of residence, are taken by OFII after it has consulted with the Director of the place of accommodation. The specific situation of the asylum seeker has to be taken into account.

Accommodation facilities for asylum seekers nether the national reception scheme (dispositif national d'accueil, Dna) are:

  • Accommodation centres for asylum seekers (CADA);
  • Emergency accommodation for asylum seekers (HUDA, AT-SA, PRAHDA, CAO);
  • Reception and administrative situation exam centres (CAES).

Aviary seekers accommodated in these facilities receive a certification of address (attestation de domiciliation).[one] This certification is valid for i year and can be renewed if necessary. It allows the asylum seeker to open up a bank account and to receive postal service.

According to the national reception scheme principle, an asylum seeker who has registered his or her claim in a specific Prefecture might not necessarily be accommodated in the aforementioned region. The asylum seeker has to present him or herself to the accommodation identify proposed or the region assigned by OFII within 5 days. If not, the offer is considered to be refused and the asylum seeker volition not be entitled to any other material reception atmospheric condition.

The management of reception centres is subcontracted to the semi-public company Adoma or to NGOs that have been selected through a public call for tenders, such as Forum réfugiés – Cosi, France terre d'asile, fifty'Ordre de Malte, Coallia, French Cherry Cantankerous etc. These centres fall under the French social initiatives (activeness sociale) and are funded by the State. Their fiscal management is entrusted to the Prefect of the Département.

As of the end of 2020 the national reception scheme had the post-obit capacity across the different regions:

Capacity of the national reception scheme: 31 Dec 2020
Region CADA Emergency CAES Total
Auvergne Rhône-Alpes v,852 6,268 204 12,324
Bourgogne Franche-Comté three,163 ii,468 60 v,691
Bretagne 2,193 1,890 110 iv,193
Center-Val-de-Loire 2,179 i,613 76 3,868
K Est v,280 viii,264 370 xiii,914
Hauts de France 2,751 3,061 420 vi,232
Ile de France 5,760 12,676 894 19,330
Normandie 2,392 2,511 200 v,103
Nouvelle Aquitaine 4,515 3,512 202 eight,229
Occitanie 4,206 iii,147 200 seven,553
Pays de la Loire 2,582 2,950 200 5,732
Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur two,759 iii,436 200 6,395
Total 43,632 51,796 3,136 98,564

Source: Ministry of Interior, 'Information relating to the direction of the adaptation facilities for asylum seekers and refugees', 15 Jan 2021, bachelor in French at: https://bit.ly/2ZjKsfP.

In 2020 the number of asylum seekers accommodated remained far below the number of persons registering an application. At the end of the year, the Ministry of Interior stated that 51% of asylum seekers eligible to fabric reception conditions – i.due east. 145,253 persons in total at the end of December 2020 – were effectively accommodated compared to 48% at the end of 2019.[2] If nosotros add asylum seekers who practise not benefit from reception conditions, we tin can consider that at least 90,000 asylum seekers were not accommodated in France as of the terminate of 2020.  In 2018, only 44% of aviary seekers registered past Prefectures in 2018 effectively obtaining adaptation. ECRE's report on the reception conditions of refugees and asylum seekers in Europe demonstrates that French republic has consistently fallen curt of its obligations to provide accommodation to all aviary seekers on its territory, despite a considerable expansion of its reception infrastructure and a proliferation of types of adaptation.[iii]

Available figures bear witness that a substantial number of applicants were left out of accommodation every yr. These persisting issues enhance questions of compliance with the Reception Conditions Directive as reception conditions should ensure an adequate standard of living for applicants. Every bit regards the subtract of first-time applicants in 2020, it is largely due to the impact of COVID-xix and does not reflect the fact that reception chapters is still defective, given that many other asylum seekers were already present on the territory.

In practice, it remains the example that many reception centres accept been organised to receive families or couples, thereby making it difficult for single men or women, to be accommodated. Moreover, if the asylum seeker has not succeeded in getting access to a reception eye before lodging his or her entreatment, the chances of benefitting from one at the appeal phase are very slim. In case of a shortage of places, asylum seekers may accept no other solutions than relying on dark shelters or living on the street. The implementation of the national reception scheme intends to avert as much every bit possible cases where asylum seekers are homeless or have to resort to emergency accommodation in the long run, yet gaps in capacity persist.

At the end of 2020, 10% of the places in accommodation centers were occupied past individuals who were no longer authorised to occupy these places such as rejected asylum applicants or beneficiaries of international protection after the period of authorized presence, and 4% of the places were vacant.[4]  4,500 new places (3,000 in CADA and ane,500 in CAES) will further exist opened for asylum seekers in 2021.[5]

Reception centres for asylum seekers (CADA)

Asylum seekers having registered a merits are eligible to stay in reception centres. Asylum seekers under a Dublin procedure are excluded from accessing these centres. CADA can be either collective or individualised housing, within the same building or scattered in several locations. Reception centres tin be either collective or individualised housing, within the aforementioned building or scattered in several locations. A identify in the centres for asylum seekers is offered past OFII once the awarding has been made.

At the finish of 2019, out of a total 41,342 places in CADA, 16% were beneficiaries of international protection and 7.half-dozen% were rejected asylum seekers (in authorised stay or non).[6] More recent statistics are non available.

Emergency reception centres

Given the lack of places in regular reception centres for asylum seekers, the State government have developed emergency schemes. Different systems exist:

  1. A decentralised emergency reception scheme: emergency accommodation for asylum seekers (hébergement d'urgence dédié aux demandeurs d'asile, HUDA), counting 46,445 emergency accommodation places at the cease of 2020. Capacities provided by this scheme evolve quickly depending on the number of asylum claims and capacities of regular reception centres. A office of this places are in hotel rooms.
  1. Reception and accommodation programme for aviary seekers (programme regional d'accueil et d'hébergement des demandeurs d'asile, PRAHDA), managed at national level. It consists of housing, in most cases in old hotels, for 5,351 persons who have applied for asylum or who wish to do so and who have not been registered.

Asylum seekers who fall under the Dublin process in France can in theory benefit from emergency accommodation up until the notification of the determination of transfer, while Dublin returnees are treated as regular asylum seekers and therefore benefit from the aforementioned reception conditions granted to asylum seekers under the regular or the accelerated process. In practice, however, many persons field of study to Dublin procedures (applicants or returnees) live on the streets or in squats because of the overall lack of places.

Reception and administrative situation examination centres (CAES)

A new class of accommodation has emerged in 2017 Reception and Administrative Situation Examination Centres (centres d'accueil et d'examen de situation administrative, CAES) combine accommodation with an examination of the person'south administrative situation, in lodge to direct the private to other accommodation depending on whether he or she falls within an asylum process, a Dublin procedure or a return procedure. Almost three,000 places in such shelters take been created in 2018 and 150 new places in 2019. 3,136 places were available at the end of 2020. In some regions, CAES are designed for people coming from camps, while in others they serve vulnerable asylum seekers whose application has been registered, awaiting referral to CADA or emergency reception. No further data on the activeness of CAES are available, as the OFII considers this places every bit 'unstable' and therefore does not take them into account in the reception system described in its action report.

Asylum seekers left without adaptation

Despite the increase in reception capacity and cosmos of new forms of centres, a number of regions proceed to confront severe difficulties in terms of providing housing to asylum seekers. As stated above, only about 51% of asylum seekers eligible for material reception conditions were accommodated at the finish of 2020.

In Paris, there are still several informal camps as of early on 2021, despite many dismantlement operations by the authorities. In Jan 2020, authorities lead the 60thursday dismantlement operation since 2015 and 1,436 migrants have thus been accommodated in emergency centers post-obit the operation.[7] On 17 Nov 2020, a camp with well-nigh two,800 migrants has been dismantled about Paris but solutions were not offered to everyone.[8] As a event, on 23 November 2020, about 500 migrants (mainly from Afghanistan) supported by NGOs have settled in a large square in Paris (Place de la République) to protest and request accommodation solutions. The evacuation of the square was carried out with the use of excessive force including attacks with teargas, shock grenades and truncheons against migrants, journalists and protestors. The French Man Rights Defender (Défenseur des droits) ensuring human being rights and freedom nether the French constitution as well as the General Inspectorate of the National Police (Inspection générale de la Police nationale – IGPN) launched investigations. The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatović also confirmed that she is post-obit them closely.[nine] The conduct by police has been widely condemned by NGOs and politicians.[x]

In Calais, regular dismantlement operations have been carried out since 2015, as described in the previous updates of this written report. Yet, hundreds of migrants were notwithstanding living in makeshift camps in Calais area throughout 2020. In January 2020, NGOs stated that 850 migrants were in Calais and surrounding,[11] and in July 2020, this number increased to one,200 migrants according to NGOs (700 to 750 according to authorities).[12] Following a visit to the breezy camp in Calais in September 2020, carried out upon the request of thirteen NGOs, the French Public Defender of Rights noted sub-standard living weather condition.[13] An estimated 1,200-1,500 people, including women with young children and unaccompanied children, were sleeping in the woods, including in bad conditions weather. They experienced harassment past police during evacuations. Germ-free facilities were far from living areas, with simply one water point; and measures to incorporate the spread of COVID-19 were bereft. The Public Defender of Rights expressed particular concerns nigh the situation of women and children. The lack of specific facilities for women makes them particularly vulnerable to sexual exploitation and gender-based violence. Children, some only 12-fourteen years quondam, were at run a risk of falling prey to illegal networks.[14]

At the cease of September 2020, the largest dismantlement operation since 2016 took place in Calais with about 800 migrants directed to accommodation centres.[15] Co-ordinate to figures from Human Rights Observers (HRO), a non-profit that monitors police force evictions in northern France, 973 evictions took place in Calais in 2020, with police confiscating and destroying belongings. In December alone, 526 tents were seized, and 41 arrests were made.[sixteen] Reports of abuse, excessive strength and violence have described children being teargassed, a person inside a tent being dragged past a tractor, and a man shot in the face up with a condom bullet from 10 metres, hospitalising him for two months.[17] These evictions have contributed to pushing hundreds of migrants into the streets without any shelter, while weather conditions during winter have become very harsh.

In recent years, Courts have too condemned the state of affairs in Calais. In July 2017, the Quango of State ruled that state deficiencies in Calais exposed migrants to degrading treatment and enjoined the State to set up several arrangements for access to drinking water and sanitary facilities.[18] In a study published in December 2018, the Ombudsman denounced a "degradation" of the health and social situation of migrants living in camps in the north of French republic, with "unprecedented violations of primal rights".[19] On 21 June 2019, the Quango of State ordered the northern prefecture of France to adopt important germ-free measures to support around 700 migrants living nigh a sport hall of the district of Grande-Synthe. The application to proceedings for interim measures had been filed by 9 civil-society organisations and the district of Grande-Synthe. Information technology demonstrated that both the inhumane living weather condition of the migrants and the failure to act of the Government were a violation of the migrant's fundamental rights.[20] Post-obit the decision of the Council of State, the French prefect had 8 days to adopt numerous germ-free measures such as installing water points, showers and toilets, just also to provide information to migrants on their rights in a language they empathize.

On 10 February 20201, the National Consultative Commission on Human Rights (CNCDH) issued an opinion where it stated that, v years after its previous visit on site, the nobility of the people exiled in Calais and Grande-Synthe is however being violated. It confirms that in 2020 more 1,000 evictions were carried out in Calais, and 33 evictions in Grande Synthe. Access to drinking water, food, showers, toilets as well every bit basic health services is not guaranteed. It calls for the re-establishment of a dialogue and cooperation between all the stakeholders involved in order to ensure the protection and nobility of the concerned individuals. It likewise recalls the all-time interest of the child and the necessity to introduce guarantees for unaccompanied minors likewise every bit vulnerable groups such as women or victims of human trafficking.[21]

In another cities (Nantes, Grande Synthe, Metz) migrants oft live in the street. Some of them are asylum seekers eligible for adaptation centers only not housed due to the lack of places. The issue of homelessness in France has also been scrutinised by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). On two July 2020, the ECtHR published its judgment in N.H. and others 5 France concerning the living conditions of homeless asylum applicants every bit a issue of the failures of the French regime. The case concerns 5 single men of Afghan, Iranian, Georgian and Russian nationality who arrived in French republic on separate occasions. After submitting their aviary applications, they were unable to receive cloth and financial back up and were therefore forced into homelessness. The applicants slept in tents or in other precarious circumstances and lived without material or fiscal support, in the form of Temporary Allowance, for a substantial period of time. All of the applicants complained,inter alia,that their living conditions were incompatible with Article 3 ECHR.[22] However, in the instance of B.Thousand. and others v. France, the ECtHR unanimously ruled on 10 September 2020 that,inter alia, the living conditions in a French tent campsite on a carpark did not violate Commodity 3 ECHR. [23]

Evolution of the capacity of the unlike types of accommodation

Although the capacity of CADA – the main grade of reception for asylum seekers – has been steadily developed throughout the years, France has exponentially increased the chapters of emergency accommodation through the creation of PRAHDA and the expansion of local HUDA from 11,829 places in mid-2016 to 51,796 places at the cease of 2020.[24]

This means that the emergency accommodation network (PRAHDA, HUDA) is more of import than the CADA and formally forms part of the national reception system. Information technology appears therefore that "emergency adaptation" in French republic no longer serves the purpose of temporarily covering shortages in the normal reception system. In fact, equally already explained, it is the default form of adaptation for sure categories of asylum seekers such as those nether a Dublin procedure, since they are excluded altogether from CADA.[25]

[ane] Article R.744-1 to R.744-4 Ceseda.

[ii] French Government, Upkeep police 2021, Annex. October 2020, available in French at : https://bit.ly/3d1P4zd.

[iii]  ECRE, Housing out of reach? The reception of refugees and asylum seekers in Europe, Apr 2019, thirteen, available at: https://fleck.ly/2RK0ivp, 13.

[4] French Government, Budget law 2021, Annex, Oct 2020, bachelor in French at: https://bit.ly/3d1P4zd, 24

[v]  Ministry of Interior, 'Information relating to the management of the accommodation facilities for asylum seekers and refugees', xv January 2021, bachelor in French at: https://chip.ly/2ZjKsfP.

[6]  OFII, 2019 Activity report, available in French at: https://scrap.ly/3aUFHP1, 28.

[7]  Prefecture de Police force, Press release, 28 January 2020, bachelor in French at: https://bit.ly/2UcN4uv.

8. Le Monde, 'Evacuation d'un campement de plus de 2 800 migrants au pied du Stade de France', 17 November 2020, available in French at : https://scrap.ly/3jM8eug.

[9] Commissioner for Homo Rights on Twitter: https://fleck.ly/3qluuO4.

x.  Le Monde, 'Le point sur l'évacuation du camp de migrants à Paris : coups de matraque et « chasse à fifty'homme », indignation politique et enquêtes de l'IGPN', bachelor in French at : https://bit.ly/3rVwdKr.

11. Infomigrants, 'Opération de "mise à l'abri" à Calais après un mois d'évacuations successives', 28 January 2020. Available in French at : https://flake.ly/38WPzoG.

12. La Voix du Nord, 'Migrants de Calais: tensions lors de démantèlements de campements ce vendredi', x July 2020, available in French at : https://bit.ly/3rJXhfu.

[13]  Médecins du Monde, 'Exilés de Calais : Les associations saisissent la Défendeure des Droits et les Nations Unies', 17 August 2020, available in French at : https://scrap.ly/3jNMUEH.

[14]  French Public Defender of Rights, Decision n°2020-179, xviii September 2020, available in French at: https://chip.ly/3rTYmkP.

xv. Le Monde, 'A Calais, un campement de migrants démantelé, les associations dénoncent une « opération de communication »', 29 September 2020, available in French at : https://bit.ly/3aZ9PbU.

[16]  ECRE, 'France: Calais Evictions Continue Despite Winter, Family Reunifications Go along to exist Blocked', 15 January 2021, available at: https://bit.ly/2ZhR7Hc.

[17]   The Guardian, ''Like torture': Calais police accused of continued migrant rights abuses', thirteen January 2021, available at: https://chip.ly/3dcYnML; ECRE, 'France: Evictions Continue amongst Winter Emergency while Quango of State Allows Preventing Media Access', 12 Feb 2021, bachelor at: https://bit.ly/3s0KQfv.

[18]   Council of State, Order No 412125, 31 July 2017.

[19]  Ombudsman, Exiles et droits fondamentaux, trois ans après le rapport Calais, 19 Dec 2018, available at: https://bit.ly/2GIf7uS.n do,  in practices varies widely. er 24-hour interval to 25 €)ype of , xix east  of persons selected only it appears through OFII communic

[20]  France Television set Info, 'Nord : la préfecture condamnée à prendre des mesures sanitaires et à organiser des maraudes pour les migrants à Grande-Synthe', 21 June 2019, bachelor in French at : https://bit.ly/2w0zPTL.

[21] National Consultative Commission on Homo Rights (CNCDH), Calais et Grande-Synthe Les atteintes à la dignité et aux droits fondamentaux des personnes exilées doivent cesser, xi February 2021, available in French at: https://scrap.ly/3jTdTPg.

[22]  European Court of Man Rights published, North.H. and others v France (Application No. 28820/13), ii July 2020, meet EDAL summary at: https://flake.ly/3ppxQhw.

[23]  ECtHR, B.G. and others v. French republic (Awarding no. 63141/13), ten September 2020, see EDAL summary at: https://chip.ly/37eckGi.

[24]Ibid.

[25]Ibid.