01 Mar State’s failure to protect minors from degrading treatment in migrant camps

The European Court of Human Rights held, unanimously, that there had been a violation of Article 3 (prohibition of inhuman and degrading treatment) of the European Convention on Human Rights in the case of Khan v. France (application no. 12267/16, 28/02/2019).

The case concerned the failure by the French authorities to provide an unaccompanied foreign minor, Jamil Khan, an Afghan, with care before and after the dismantling of the makeshift camps set up in the southern section of the “lande de Calais” (“Calais heath”). The Court noted the applicant’s young age, having arrived in France as an 11-year-old. He had been 12 when the southern section of the “lande de Calais” had been dismantled and he had left the country.

The Court was not convinced that the authorities had done all that could reasonably be expected of them to fulfil the obligation of protection and care incumbent on the respondent State vis-à-vis an unaccompanied foreign minor unlawfully present on French territory, that is to say an individual belonging to the category of the most vulnerable persons in society. For several months the applicant had thus lived in the “lande de Calais” shanty town, in an environment completely unsuited to his status as a child.

The Court held that the extremely negative circumstances prevailing in the makeshift camps and the failure to enforce the court order intended to secure protection for the applicant amounted to a violation of the respondent State’s obligations, and that the Article 3 severity threshold had been reached. It deduced that on account of the failure of the French authorities to take the requisite action, the applicant had found himself in a situation tantamount to degrading treatment.

References from the official website of the European Court of Human Rights