According to the latest Government survey from July 2018 approximately 16,090 persons live in 497 informal settlements in France, with one third located in the Greater Paris region. More than one quarter of the residents in these informal settlements and squats are children[1].
I visited such informal settlements in Toulouse and Marseille where I was struck by the appalling conditions. In Marseille, I visited a Roma settlement of 120 people in the 15th Arrondissement where absolutely no services were being provided by the city or the central government – the community is siphoning water from a fire hydrant; and there are no toilets, or showers on site, though health care services are available and children are able to attend the local school.
In Toulouse I visited a former office building being used as a residence by more than 300 migrants and refugees, including women and single parent families. Though the complex has running water and electricity, there are inadequate sanitation facilities with residents having to erect three improvised showers in the building's outdoor parking lot and sewage problems arising as a result of overuse of toilets. The building has no cooking facilities, and is overcrowded. Several people sleep in the corridors and former office rooms in upper floors house up to 15 people. Mattresses and furniture have been salvaged from garbage dumps and there are bed bug infestations. The city has not intervened to improve the conditions of the residence or to provide them with greater security of tenure on the basis that the building is privately owned.
In both of these cases, contrary to international human rights law, the residents are under threat of evictions and alternative adequate accommodation has so far not been proposed by the State. While successful examples to develop long term housing solutions in consultation and in close collaboration with residents of informal settlements have been reported to me, such as in the town of Strasbourg, the residents in the informal settlements I visited in Toulouse and Marseille indicated to me that they had so far not been meaningfully consulted about their fate. I remind the Government that individuals are experts in their own lives and that participation is a human right. Residents affected must be given the opportunity to participate in decision making processes that affect their lives.
The Government's overall programme of 'reabsorption' to reduce the number of informal settlements is in keeping with its commitments under Goal 11 of the Sustainable Development Goals. According to information received, this programme stresses the need to provide access to the rights to water, sanitation, adequate housing, education and work. My visit to informal settlements, however, tells a different story. It appears that in order to discourage the growth of such settlements a two-pronged approach is adopted: residents are cut-off from what they need to survive including basic services such as potable water, sanitation facilities, garbage services, and electricity and are subjected to repeated forced evictions.
Where a domestic or regional court order has necessitated a different response, the government has responded with the provision of the bare minimum for survival. In Calais, for example, as a result of a decision by the European Commission for Human Rights, provision has been made for access to water, to toilets and food for the approximately 300 migrants and refugees who continue to live there after the clearing of the encampment in 2016. They have not, however, been provided with any semblance of housing, are subject to cyclical and repeated evictions and most do not have easy access to showers, cots to sleep on, or any other comforts.
Policies denying access to core elements of the right to adequate housing are in violation of international human rights law, including the right to water and sanitation, health and to live in security. I remind the Government of France that the intention of the international human rights order is to ensure human dignity.
5. Forced Evictions
A survey by the Colectif National Droits de l'Homme Romeurope indicates that in 2018 171 evictions of informal settlements and squats took place, affecting 9,688 persons. They estimate that approximately 65 percent of all persons living in informal settlements or squats have been evicted during 2018 from their homes, and the majority of these evictions have taken place from areas owned by the State or public institutions[2].
