France: Allowance insufficient for asylum seekers without accommodation

Date: 
Friday, December 23, 2016

In a judgment of 23 December 2016, the French Council of State examined the appropriateness of the level of the ADA (Allocation pour demandeur d’asileallowance for asylum seekers) for asylum seekers who are not placed in a reception centre throughout their asylum procedure. According to the Decree of 21 October 2015 relating to the ADA, the amount of the allowance depends on the family composition of the applicant. For example, a single adult asylum seeker is entitled to 6.80€ per day. An additional 4.20€ per day is provided to persons who have accepted to be accommodated but cannot be placed in a reception centre.
 
The Council of State found the latter amount “manifestly insufficient” to ensure an adequate standard of living in accordance with the recast Reception Conditions Directive. It specified that the standard set out in the Directive requires the state, where accommodation cannot be provided to an asylum seeker, to provide an allowance sufficiently high to allow the individual to obtain housing in the private rental market. This has also been affirmed by the Court of Justice of the European Union in the Saciri ruling.
 
The Council of State has ordered the Prime Minister to set a higher amount for the ADA for this category of asylum seekers within two months.
 
Based on the AIDA article dated 2 January 2017, available here.



This item was reproduced with the permission of ECRE from the weekly ELENA legal update supported by the Fundamental Rights and Citizenship Funding Programme and distributed by email. The purpose of these updates is to inform asylum lawyers and legal organizations supporting asylum seekers and refugees of recent developments in the field of asylum law. Please note that the information provided is taken from publicly available information on the internet. Every reasonable effort is made to make the content accurate and up to date at the time each item is published but no responsibility for its accuracy and correctness, or for any consequences of relying on it, is assumed by ECRE, the IRC or its partners.

                                                     

 

Keywords: 
Material reception conditions
Reception conditions