Man Saved From Deportation Over Reason of Air Pollution

In France, a man was saved from being deported because of his health condition, and deporting him would worsen his ailment. The man was reported to have been diagnosed with severe asthma, and his country of origin is one with terrible air quality. Sending him home would be a turn for the worse and exacerbate his breathing disability.

Despite being the first case in the country to have been ruled in this manner, environmental concern is a global issue that is one reason for international migration. Cases like this will most likely grow in numbers as the climate crisis continues.

A severely asthmatic Bangladeshi man has avoided French deportation after his plea to prevent the risk of severe health deterioration that might lead to premature death if he returned to his homeland.

The unnamed man has been living in the French city of Toulouse for quite some time. He arrived in the country in 2011 to flee from persecution and, in 2015, was granted temporary residency under the grounds of being a foreign national that requires medical treatment.

The Bordeaux court overturned the deportation order against the Bangladeshi on the grounds of facing "a worsening of his respiratory pathology due to air pollution" in his home country of Bangladesh.

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Bangladesh Air Pollution

In 2020, prestigious educational institutions, Yale and Columbia universities' EPI (Environmental Performance Index) ranked Bangladesh as the 179th placeholder in the global air quality. The country also has six times the recommended maximum concentration of fine particles in the air, according to the WHO (World Health Organization).

It has also been shown that among the 572,600 deaths caused by noncommunicable diseases in 2018, ambient and household air pollution was among the highest factors.

Court Ruling

Bordeaux court considered that the drugs and medications that the man is receiving in the country (France) are unavailable in Bangladesh. They also took into accounts that the Bangladeshi health system can only provide the night-time ventilation equipment that the Bangladeshi man needs to treat his terrible sleep apnoea.

The man's defense also told the court that his father died due to an intense asthma attack at 54. And, the moment he arrived in France in 2011, he immediately started treatment, which improved his respiratory capacity.  It was shown that his respiratory capabilities were only at 58 percent in 2013, but it eventually increased to 70% in 2018.

"For all these reasons, the court decided that sending my client back to his country would mean putting him at real risk of death," the lawyer, Ludovic Rivièr, said. "Respiratory failure as a result of an asthma attack would be almost inevitable."

After being granted temporary residency in 2015, doctors advised the immigration authorities that the man's condition could be treated adequately in Bangladesh. Fortunately, the court overturned that decision.

According to his lawyer, "It decided my client's life would be endangered by the air quality in Bangladesh. To my knowledge, this is the first time a French court has applied the environment as one of its criteria in such a case."

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