By Maxime Nuts
Published on
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For the first time, the French court, considered thata man could not be returned to his home country, due to pollution.
This 40 year old man with asthma, originally from Bangladesh, lives in Toulouse. It is defended by Maître Ludovic Rivière.
The first “environmentally displaced person” in France
Installed in Toulouse for ten years, his residence permit was renewed every year. But in 2017, the prefecture of Haute-Garonne refuses it.
As’sick stranger, three criteria are needed for it to be renewed: a state of health that requires medical treatment, that in the absence of this treatment serious consequences are considered, and that this treatment is not available in the country of origin.
Man suffers froma severe form of asthma, and until then, the prefecture retained all three criteria, but in 2017, it considered that the treatment was finally available in Bangladesh. A decision revoked first by the Administrative Court of Toulouse, then by the Bordeaux Court of Appeal, following an appeal by the Prefect of the Occitanie region. Both jurisdictions found that treatment for asthma was not available in Bangladesh.
“If he returned to Bangladesh, it was death assured”
In front, there administrative court of appeal in Bordeaux, his lawyer Me Ludovic Rivière of the Toulouse Bar, pleaded that his country of origin, Bangladesh, was too polluted for his client to live there in his state.
If he returned to Bangladesh, it was death assured for him, it was not me who said it, but the doctors who followed him. According to the WHO, “air pollution both indoors and outdoors leads to respiratory diseases, among other things, which can be fatal”. With regard to Bangladesh, WHO publishes figures which are alarming, 67% of deaths are caused by non-communicable diseases. And among the number of these deaths, 82% represented people exposed to indoor air pollution defined as pollution depending mainly on fuels and polluting technologies. Moreover, the WHO notes with particular concern that the ambient air pollution in Bangladesh considered as a risk factor is defined by an exceeding of the WHO limit value for the annual concentration of PM2.5 (particulate matter fines) by a multiple of 6: in other words, air pollution in Bangladesh is 6 times higher than the commonly accepted rate.
If the Toulouse administrative court only took into account the lack of treatment in Bangladesh, the Bordeaux Court of Appeal recognized the criterion of pollution from the country of origin as admissible.
The man’s father died in Bangladesh at the age of 54, from a respiratory illness caused by pollution.
Heavy sleep apnea
In addition to asthma, M’s cliente East river victim of sleep apnea, here again his lawyer defended that it was not compatible with a life in Bangladesh: “First of all there are no machines to sleep when we have sleep apnea in Bangladesh, except in the hospital . In addition, from 35 ° C, these devices pulsate air at 41 ° C, in Bangladesh, it is over 35 ° C half the year ”.
Here again this argument was accepted by the Bordeaux Court of Appeal.
Waiter, he will finally get his life back, legally
Following this decision, the 40-year-old man, who is a waiter in Toulouse, will return to his “normal” life. A positive point for his lawyer: ” My client has always worked and pays taxes. I am happy that France did not send him back to certain death in his country ”.
A first in France, which could only be the beginning, as global warming is beginning to have real consequences in many countries.
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