LEGAL TEAM

You are an asylum seeker needing help ?

Our legal team is ready to help you! We can help asylum seekers in three main ways:

1. Preparing elements of asylum applications

2. Practice OFPRA interviews

3. Help prepare for reconsideration interviews

(For specialised legal clinics please go to GISTI)

More about our actions...

Our Mobile Clinics (Maraudes Juridique)

Our mobile teams consist of volunteers trained in the French asylum seeking process and translators. This team organises mobile street clinics, making rounds around north Paris to meet homeless asylum seekers and refugees. During these street rounds, volunteers distribute informative documents on the asylum seeking process, answer various questions on issues encountered, and where applicable, redirect cases towards legal clinics where lawyers are freely accessible.

Our Legal Clinic (Permanence Juridique)

Our legal clinic is composed of volunteers specifically trained in the drafting of asylum seeker’s ‘personal story’, required within their asylum request application. Volunteers also help asylum seekers prepare their interview with the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons, a key step in the asylum process. Once a week, in La Maison des Initiatives Étudiantes' offices, our team welcomes asylum seekers whose interviews are soon due, and walks them through the interview process, going over their personal story, and coaching them so as to best prepare them for this crucial and life-determining step.

Housing Centres

Composed of over a dozen active members, the asylum aid team dedicated to housing centres currently intervenes in four housing centres in Paris: the Albin Peyron residence, the Boulogne center, the Pré St Gervais center and La Promesse de l'Aube. All interventions are done with the centre’s accord, and within a wider partnership with the organisation running them (e.g. Association Aurore, who runs both CHUs). The aim of these partnerships is to:

Ensure a better access to rights for asylum seekers and recognised refugees. Due to language barriers, and the complexity of relevant administrative procedures, many individuals lack information on their rights and responsibilities in France. Our work therefore focuses on providing each person with an overview of their rights in France, and informing them of the different procedures they are responsible for.

Monitor certain, individual cases; housing centres often welcome a high number of residents, without necessarily having those human resources necessary for individual follow-ups. Our work seeks to remedy this gap, complementing their work and offering them support on certain, complex cases, or accompaniments to administrative offices.

MEET THE TEAM

THE LEGAL TEAM

Eloïse Chenal

My name is Eloïse Chenal, I am 24 years old and in the second year of the Human Rights and Humanitarian Action Master. I studied history and political sciences in Germany and France. I have always been interested in migration and human rights and began volunteering in refugee camps quite early, in Germany, Palestine and France with lots of different NGOs. From my experience with NGOs and lawyers, I came to the conclusion that asylum seekers face a lot of obstacles to access their rights when asking for asylum in France, being the language, the level of education, or the availability of information. Volunteering with SPRH is a way to reduce those obstacles and help them access better life conditions. It’s my second year as a coordinator of the legal aid team, and I absolutely enjoy it!

Camille Krejdovsky

My name is Camille Krejdovsky and I am on exchange at Sciences Po. My home institution is Duke University in the United States, where I study French and Biology. At my home university, I volunteer with a refugee resettlement organization teaching English to French speaking refugees arriving in the United States. In the future, I aspire to attend medical school and practice medicine with a specialty in treating the unique needs of refugee populations. I find SPRH to be a very impactful organization and am excited to be involved!

Charlotte Haas

Hi! My name is Charlotte, and I am currently 21 years old. After a double degree in
Franco-German law, I joined Sciences Po for a master's degree in public policy, and
continued my master's training in public law at Paris 1 University.
I decided to join SPRH in order to be able to put the skills I learned to the service of
others, and to be able to be useful in a difficult period. I am convinced that it is necessary
to give your time in order to make the lives of asylum seekers easier, and to improve, even
in a minimal way, their reception in France.

Tommaso de Bellis

Hi! My name is Tommaso De Bellis, I’m twenty-two years old and I’m from Milan, Italy.
I hold a BA degree in International Studies and European Institutions from the University of Milan, and I’m currently pursuing a MA degree in Human Rights and Humanitarian Action at the SciencesPo’s Paris School of International Affairs.
Being a strong believer in the importance and potential of social solidarity, I decided to join the Legal Team at SPRH to put my studies and my desire to get involved at the service of asylum seekers in Paris.