The French bishops have denounced “the alarming situation” of political asylum-seekers in France. They did so just at the time that the French Parliament was busily discussing a bill on the matter. Already on 6 February 2002 the French bishops had contested “the excessive duration” and “inadequacy” of the procedures for seeking asylum, and urged that asylum-seekers be granted the right to work, that their social rights and accommodation be improved, and that greater attention be paid to the situation of children. Now, fifteen months later, “the situation of political asylum-seekers remains alarming and their basic human rights board and lodging are being flouted”, say Bishop Olivier de Berranger of Saint-Denis, Auxiliary Bishop Jean Luc Brunin of Lille and Archbishop Lucien Daloz of Besançon. At the same time the associations that look after asylum-seekers are “overloaded with work. It’s not normal for the public authorities to totally shift the humanitarian aspect of the problem onto the members of the associations”. The bishops criticize the establishment of a single office for asylum applications, with “the risk of making access to the procedure more difficult”, and ask that the “times needed to process applications be accelerated”. They also denounce the “worrying” situation of the “waiting zones”, where they allege “free rein is given to scandalous practices: violence, abuse, disregard for the person, and violation of the rights of asylum”. They therefore ask that the law “clearly delimit what is a waiting zone” and that the associations be given access to them, because “the risk of abuses diminishes in the presence of outside observers”. The current difficulties of gaining access to asylum, in the view of the three bishops, “obliges asylum-seekers to have recourse to traffickers in clandestine immigration who exploit them”. The bishops therefore invite the authorities to resolve the question of delays and better define such notions as “safe country”, “de facto authority” or “internal zone of security”: “new” terms for French law which risk “a reduction in effective protection”.
