A real showdown.
Various migrant aid associations have been calling on the public authorities for several months to install
“showers”
,
“sanitary facilities”
and
“water points”
in an illegal migrant camp in Ouistreham (Calvados).
Located in a small wood near the towpath along the canal going from Caen to the sea, this makeshift location has been occupied for several years by several dozen “migrants,
mainly Sudanese and wishing to reach the United Kingdom”,
perhaps we read in a note from the president of the report and studies section at the Council of State in December 2023.
And if the associations had until now only obtained victories on the legal level, they could soon suffer their first setback.
On March 21, during a hearing at the Council of State, the public rapporteur in fact agreed with the public authorities.
A right to water
It all started last spring, when Solidarités International, CAMO, Vents Contraires, Citoyen.nes en Lutte and La Cimade supported migrants to take the matter to the administrative court of Caen, as part of an interim relief [the interim relief -freedom makes it possible to obtain from the judge
"all necessary measures"
to safeguard a fundamental freedom which the administration has seriously infringed,
Editor's note
].
They then asked the public authorities to install
“showers”
,
“sanitary facilities”
or even simple
“water points”
.
The objective being that migrants
“have sufficient access to drinking water and suitable hygiene procedures”
in this illegal camp in this Normandy commune.
To justify this procedure, the associations relied on the recognition by the government of the right for any person
“to benefit from access to their home or place of life, to a quantity of drinking water sufficient to meet their needs. vital needs (drinking, preparation and cooking of food, personal hygiene, general hygiene and cleanliness of the home or living space)”
.
This obligation arises from an order taken on December 22, 2022,
“relating to access and quality of water intended for human consumption”
, and which is a transposition of a European directive of December 16, 2020. The associations highlighted as well as
“the nearest public toilets”
were
“1.6 kilometers”
from the
“living place”
and that
“no shower device”
was
“accessible to the public in the territory of the commune of Ouistreham”
.
But the town hall had a very different vision of things.
She had in fact recalled the existence of real reception and accommodation infrastructures in Courseulles, a town located around twenty kilometers away, but especially in Caen, the capital of Calvados, 15 kilometers away.
In 2017, this same administrative court had also rejected a similar request in summary proceedings, considering
“that a certain number of actions had already been put in place”
, such as the creation of the accommodation center in Caen, can we read in the order of December 15, 2017.
The commune of Ouistreham finally called into question the notion of
“place of life”
by affirming that these migrants were
“not permanently settled”
and that they
“wandered on the towpath, in the town center, on the port and around the restricted ferry access zone
.
These migrants are in fact settled on this
“wooded plot”
because it is close to the boats which leave France to go to Portsmouth, in the United Kingdom, the destination they
ultimately
wish to reach.
A freedom against a public policy
The administrative court, however, ruled in favor of the associations on June 2, 2023 by ordering the prefecture and the municipality of Ouistreham to
“create, in the immediate vicinity of the migrant camp, water points and latrines, as well as a system access to showers”
(Decision No. 2301351).
The absence of sanitary facilities
“thus represents a serious and manifestly illegal attack on a fundamental freedom”
, we can read in the decision which is based both on the constitutional principle of safeguarding human dignity, taken from the first paragraph of the preamble of the Constitution, and on the right of every person not to be subjected to inhuman or degrading treatment, recognized by the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms in its article 3. This decision was confirmed by the Council of State on July 3.
For the lawyer for the commune of Ouistreham, Me Philippe Jourdan, the right of access to water has therefore made
“all emergency accommodation policies ineffective”
by emptying them of their substance
.
The public authorities offered asylum seekers the opportunity to go to existing buildings.
However, the illegal camp has gradually become more permanent.
“
It is therefore a fundamental freedom, that of access to water, which is opposed to a public policy, which required significant financial investments
,” he still laments.
Adaptation to the number of people
Some six months later, on December 1, the Council of State, after a new complaint by the associations which considered that the sanitary facilities had not been sufficient, once again summoned the municipality to “
take the necessary measures to effective operation of sanitary equipment installed in the immediate vicinity of the camp.
The high court had
“even gone further than the Caen administrative court,”
adds Me Jourdan.
“It asked the city to contact the associations to gradually adapt the planned system according to the number of people arriving on the site”
[article 3 of the decision of the Council of State].
A request considered “
restrictive
” for the city, believes Mr. Jourdan, because the latter must adapt to the flow of people going to the place.
And it is now up to the national gendarmerie to determine the number of migrants present on the site.
If these measures are not implemented, the city could be exposed to a fine of 1,000 euros per day.
For the public authorities, however, it remains difficult to understand the number of asylum seekers in the illegal camp.
Firstly because the latter do not have the desire to stay on French territory.
Last November, the Vents Contrehams association counted, in its newsletter, nearly 230 migrants in Ouistreham.
However, on December 7, in a press release, the Calvados prefecture offered asylum seekers an accommodation offer.
According to the prefect, only 54 of them finally benefited from this system.
Since then, the prefecture and the municipality have installed three sanitary modules (comprising showers, toilets and sinks) and have completed sanitation work and connection to the sanitary and electrical networks.
Here again, the associations found this insufficient and once again launched a procedure to ask the Council of State to implement the fine of 1000 euros per day.
And on March 21, the public rapporteur for the first time agreed with the public authorities by estimating that the equipment was proportional to the needs previously expressed.
If this legal clarification from the public rapporteur does not constitute a decision, it nevertheless seems to represent a first victory for the State and the municipality.
The highest administrative court should render its decision within a few weeks.
Contacted by
Le
Figaro
, the town hall of Ouistreham and the prefecture of Calvados did not wish to respond.