Universal-MigrationHRlaw-PG-no-6-Publications-PractitionersGuide-2014-eng

MIGRATION AND INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS LAW | 245
in the case of unlawfully present persons no alternative to accommodation
may be required by States, eviction from shelter should be banned as it
would place the persons concerned, particularly children, in a situation of
extreme helplessness which is contrary to the respect of their human dignity.”
993 The Committee has also further determined that “failure to accommodate
[undocumented] minors shows, in particular, that the Government
has not taken the necessary and appropriate measures to guarantee the
minors in question the care and assistance they need and to protect them
from negligence, violence or exploitation, thereby posing a serious threat
to the enjoyment of their most basic rights, such as the rights to life, to
psychological and physical integrity and to respect for human dignity,” 994 in
breach of their right to to appropriate social, legal and economic protection
under Article 17.1 ESC(r). Furthermore, failure to appropriately accommodate
undocumented children or young persons, whether accompanied or
not by their family, breaches the State’s obligation to take “the necessary
measures to guarantee these minors the special protection against physical
and moral hazards required by Article 7, §10, thereby causing a serious
threat to their enjoyment of the most basic rights, such as the right to life,
to psychological and physical integrity and to respect for human dignity.” 995
The European Committee of Social Rights also affirmed that lack of accommodation
for children and young persons leads to violations of their
right to access health services and of the obligation of States to prevent
epidemic and endemic diseases under Article 11 ESC(r). The Committee
has specifically ruled that “the lasting incapacity of the reception facilities
and the fact that, consequently, a number of the minors in question
(particularly those accompanied by their families) have been consistently
forced into life on the streets exposes these minors to increased threats to
their health and their physical integrity, which are the result in particular
of a lack of housing or foster homes. In this connection, the Committee
considers that providing foreign minors with housing and foster homes is
a minimum prerequisite for attempting to remove the causes of ill health
among these minors (including epidemic, endemic or other diseases) and
that the State therefore has felt to meet its obligations as far as the
adoption of this minimum prerequisite is concerned.” 996
iii) Protection of the right to housing through civil and political rights
The ECHR affords protection from destruction of homes 997 and forced
evictions 998 under the right to respect for the home and family and
993 Ibid., para. 62.
994 DCI v. Belgium, ECSR, op. cit., fn. 904, para. 82.
995 Ibid., para. 97.
996 Ibid., para. 117.
997 Akdivar and Others v. Turkey, ECtHR, op. cit., fn. 937.
998 Mentes v. Turkey, ECtHR, GC, Application No. 23186/94, Judgment of 28 November 1997.