ECtHR orders French authorities to provide for unaccompanied migrant children during COVID-19 crisis
The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has ordered French authorities to provide food and shelter for an unaccompanied migrant child who is awaiting an appeal of his asylum claim.
The applicant, a boy from Guinea, was refused recognition as a child in need of protection by the Haute-Vienne department (a region in central France). He appealed this decision to a juvenile judge and is still awaiting a ruling. In the meantime, the boy ended up on the streets and had been living in squat conditions. Given the urgency of this situation and the fact that France has been on lockdown due to COVID-19 restrictions, his lawyer applied to the Court for an interim measures order.
On 30 March, the ECtHR ordered France to ensure that this boy was provided for and had access to housing and food until the end of the lockdown period.
According to a report by Human Rights Watch, this appears to be a trend across France. Similar cases are being reported in Gap, Marseille and the Alps region. Unaccompanied minor children are forced to live unsanitary and overcrowded spaces and are very vulnerable to virus transmission. This is in spite of the fact that the French Secretary of State for Child Protection had announced that “every youth who requests it will be provided with shelter” whether deemed an adult or child.
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