legal and social conditions for asylum seekers and refugees in ...

SOCIAL CONDITIONS FOR ASYLUM SEEKERS
Introduction/legal basis
– Circular of 19 December 1991 of the Ministry for Social Affairs and Integration relating to the reorganisation
of the national reception system for asylum seekers and refugees;
– Circular of 8 July 1999 of the Ministry for Employment and Solidarity relating to the admission
procedures in the national reception system for refugees and asylum seekers.
Accommodation
Accommodation in reception centres is neither compulsory nor automatic. Asylum seekers and
refugees who need housing must apply to the non-governmental agency France Terre d'Asile
(FTDA). The National Admission Board, consisting of FTDA members, a representative of the
French Ministry for Employment and Solidarity and a representative from the Social Service for
Migrants, allocates places available in the centres on the basis of social criteria.
Asylum seekers awaiting a decision on their asylum applications may be housed in reception
centres for asylum seekers called CADA ("Centres d'accueil pour demandeurs d'asile”). The
current capacity in the existing 63 CADAs is 3,779 beds (as of 30 August 1999).
Such CADAs have been set up throughout the country. They are normally quite small (fewer than
60 places) and more than half of them are combined with hostels for young workers and
sometimes with council housing. By agreement with the state, FTDA is responsible for coordination
of all these centres but, in practice, only runs two CADAs located in the Paris area, as
well as a centre for unaccompanied minors, also in the outskirts of Paris. The others are run by
various national or local organisations linked by a binding agreement with FTDA guaranteeing
equivalent conditions of reception.
In addition, two transit centres are designed for the reception of specific cases.
The FTDA's centre in Créteil (with a capacity of 80 places), outside Paris, operates partly as a
CADA and partly as a transit centre for asylum seekers arriving with the prior agreement of the
French authorities (specific operations decided by the government, emergency situations, etc.).
The second transit centre is run by the regional organisation Forum Réfugiés near Lyon. This
centre (with a capacity of 40 places) is designed for the reception of emergency and massive
arrivals.
Asylum seekers normally stay about two-three weeks in transit centres before being allocated a
place in a CADA or a temporary reception centre (“Centre provisoire d’hébergement” – CPH)
designed for refugees (see under "Social Conditions for Refugees” below).
In principle, asylum seekers processed under the Dublin Convention are not entitled to
accommodation until their transfer to the state responsible for processing their application or their
admission to the French normal determination procedure. However, according to the places
available, they may be accepted in a CADA. In practice, this happens very rarely due to the
shortage of places in the centres.
FTDA has recently opened a specific accommodation centre for unaccompanied minor asylum
seekers, near Paris. It is intended to provide temporary accommodation to children aged 13 to 18
until places are available in the centres run by the national child care services. These centres,
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France