Asylum Seekers in Paris Face Crisis as COVID-19 Disrupts Services

ACAT, Ardhis, Droits d’urgence, Gisti, Kâlî, La Ligue des Droits de l’Homme and Utopia 56 are the seven associations pleading for asylum seekers. Their appeal to the administrative court is based on "seven individual applicants who are on the street, for having tried in vain to file a file in recent weeks," says Mélanie Louis, head of the asylum program at ACAT. These associations are asking the judge to take "emergency measures to restore this fundamental and constitutional right," she adds.

According to Le Parisien, the situation has become complex since the French Office of Immigration and Integration (OFII) suspended its telephone platform that issues registration appointments. The Office refers to an effective closure "until the improvement of health conditions". No date for the resumption of the procedure is mentioned. Added to this is the closure of the majority of prefecture counters in Île-de-France. For the associations, "by closing access to asylum, the government abolishes the right of asylum enshrined in international texts and the French Constitution".

For several weeks, meetings between the Paris Police Prefecture, the services of the Ministry of the Interior and the associations have not been able to provide a clear response to the situation. "We have made proposals to restore asylum registration in a dematerialized way," explains Florent Gueguen of the FAS (Federation of Solidarity Actors). We were told that there was a problem for fingerprinting; we have proposed to circumvent this obligation during the period, on a transitional basis, without receiving any answers," says the association leader. He noted a glaring lack of willingness on the part of the Ministry of the Interior.

On the administrative side, Didier Leschi, the Director General of OFII, explains that registration has in no way been "abolished". "There are people who are undoubtedly in difficulty, but the number is extremely low; we try to manage them on a case-by-case basis, because the pressure of migratory flows is much lower," he explains. "It’s a theoretical problem that in reality has little impact," adds the senior official contacted by Le Parisien.