ASAV
ASAV (Association pour l’Accueil des Voyageurs) is a secular, non-profit association founded in 1990 in the Hauts-de-Seine department of France, at the request of state representatives who identified a lack of adequate support for Traveller communities by public administrations.
For over three decades, ASAV has worked within the framework of the general law applicable to all citizens and republican values, carrying out solidarity-based actions for three groups: Romanian Roma, French Travellers (« Gens du voyage »), and beneficiaries of international protection (refugees and beneficiaries of subsidiary protection). The association respects the identity of each person and the diversity of political and religious views it encounters.
Our work is guided by three core goals: promoting a welcoming policy that respects people’s freedom to choose their way of life, including housing; fighting all forms of discrimination; and ensuring equal access to mainstream rights and services for everyone. ASAV never generalizes about the communities it serves, every action starts from the individual and their specific situation.
What do we do?
ASAV provides social, medical, legal and administrative support across three main programs. For Romanian Roma families, often living in informal settlements, the association helps secure legal domiciliation, access to healthcare (including State Medical Aid), and protection during evictions, in 2025 alone, ASAV registered over 1,500 people for domiciliation and handled thousands of phone calls and in-person visits through its weekly walk-in services.
For French Traveller families, ASAV runs a mobile community center (« L’Itinérant ») offering social support, help with children’s schooling, family mediation, and regular outreach visits to camps and sites, totaling hundreds of field visits and individual support sessions in 2025.
For beneficiaries of international protection, the association has managed a dedicated support unit since 2022, helping people with domiciliation, housing access, employment support, and healthcare, tailored to each person’s background and needs.
Across all three programs, a shared thread runs through our work: health mediation. Our health mediators go directly to where people live, building trust, identifying health risks early, and connecting families to healthcare providers who are often difficult for them to access on their own.