France abusing rights of the homeless: UN official

France is guilty of human rights abuses of homeless people and laws guaranteeing a home for all fail to protect the most vulnerable, a UN special rapporteur said on Friday.

France, like most European countries, has seen a rise in homelessness in the past decade, fueled by the fallout from the global financial crisis and an influx of migrants from Africa and the Middle East.

More than 12,000 people sleep rough on the streets of France, according to the national statistics body INSEE.

In 2018, 566 homeless died nationwide, according to the charity Les Morts de la Rue, which tracks homeless deaths. More than 100 of these were in Paris alone — over half the number of people who were murdered in New York City last year.

After visiting makeshift migrants’ camps in Paris and the port town of Calais, urban squats in Marseille, and Roma settlements in dingy city outskirts, Rapporteur Leilani Farha called for an end to evictions that violated international law ensuring the right to adequate housing.

"Evictions that are happening throughout the country, in a variety of different contexts, are not happening in compliance with international human rights law," Farha told Reuters.

"In Calais, I met a population of migrants who are certainly in a kind of trauma," the Canadian lawyer added, criticizing police treatment of migrants sleeping in forests and on roadsides.

SS