[JURIST] French police are abusing and harassing asylum seekers in the port city of Calais, Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] reported [press release] Tuesday. These asylum seekers and migrants are reportedly living in destitution in Calais and have been subjected to “routine abuses by police officers,” including “beatings and attacks with pepper spray,” leaving some individuals with broken bones and other injuries. At present, only a third of the asylum seekers “across France are provided with accommodation in reception centres” set op for individuals such as these. There has been a spike in asylum seekers in France, and specifically Calais, since the spring of 2014. Calais is a hub for asylum seekers, as it provides easy access to the UK “by rail and sea.” Although the French government has taken steps to “register and process asylum claims promptly,” and an additional 500 “places had been made available in reception centres,” HRW says asylum seekers still face dire circumstances. Many of these asylum seekers have been living on the street since 2002, when the French government closed a 700-person capacity centre run by the Red Cross.

In 2005 France replaced the US [JURIST report] as the industrialized nation receiving the most asylum applications from refugees. In 2013, according the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) [official website] report, Asylum Levels and Trends in Industrialized Countries, 2013 [text, PDF], the most asylum claims were submitted to Germany, followed by the US, France, Sweden and Turkey. From 2012 to 2013, France received an increase in asylum claims of 5,030. Per capita, and “comparing the number of asylum seekers to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of a country,” France is second highest with its number of asylum seekers (7.3 applicants per capita), following Germany at 7.5 applicants per capita.