13 Jan Conditions in the Avenue de Blida Metz Asylum Camp
In the case of B.L. and Others v. France (application no. 48104/14) the European Court of Human Rights has unanimously declared the application inadmissible.
The case concerned asylum-seekers housed in a tent camp in Metz, who complained about the poor conditions in which they were accommodated. The 23 applicants are Albanian, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Bosnian, Kosovar, Serbian and Togolese nationals. As families made up of couples accompanied by children aged four to fourteen at the relevant time, or without children, and seven adults, they all presented themselves as asylum-seekers.
On 19 June 2013 the Prefect of Moselle opened a camp on Avenue de Blida in Metz. Up to 450 people lived in tents on this site. The camp was closed and dismantled on 15 November 2013, then reopened on 17 March 2014 to cater for the occupants of a makeshift camp being re-established nearby.
The Court found following:
- firstly, that certain applicants (nos. 2 to 23) had not maintained contact with their lawyer and had failed to keep him informed of their place of residence or to provide him with any other means of contacting them, the Court considered that they had lost interest in the proceedings and no longer intended to pursue their application.
- With regard to the first applicant E.G., she had been accommodated, according to her submissions, in the tent camp on Avenue de Blida from 20 March 2014 to 18 July 2014. However, she had not provided the Court with any specific information concerning her actual living conditions during that period. The Court noted in consequence that the applicant had not established that she had been unable to cater for her basic needs: food, hygiene and a place to live. The Court concluded that the applicant’s complaint that she had been submitted to treatment exceeding the level of severity required for the application of Article 3 was not sufficiently substantiated and had therefore to be rejected.
References from the website of the European Court of Human Rights