Top French court says Channel town must give migrants water
by AFP Staff Writers
Paris (AFP) July 5, 2023

France's top administrative court has ordered a town on the country's north coast to provide fresh water for a camp of migrants hoping to reach Britain.

Local authorities in Ouistreham would be subjecting migrants to "inhuman and degrading treatment" unless they build taps, toilets and showers "in the immediate vicinity" of their camp, according to the Council of State's July 3 ruling, published late Tuesday.

The mayor of the Norman town -- the scene of British and Free French landings on Sword Beach on D-Day in 1944 -- and the interior ministry in Paris had both appealed to the court against a previous ruling.

"Contrary to the arguments of the municipality and the minister, the presence of public toilets almost a kilometre (0.6 miles) from the camp... cannot be seen as sufficient to respond to basic drinking water and hygiene needs," the judges found.

"Such living conditions demonstrate that public authorities' provision for migrants' basic needs... remains clearly insufficient, revealing shortcomings likely to expose these people to inhuman and degrading treatment," they added.

Without access to drinking water and toilets, migrants had been using dangerous alternative water sources such as from a nearby canal.

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