The areas in which this power could be reduced include access to the labour market and the form and standard of the material reception conditions afforded to asylum seekers.

4. Member States may require applicants to cover or contribute to the cost of the material reception conditions and of the health care provided for in this Directive, pursuant to the provision of paragraph 3, if the applicants have sufficient resources, for example if they have been working for a reasonable period of time.

The equipment concerned is often used by workers who are paid for their output, in terrible conditions of intensive work.

100. Is alarmed at the deterioration of the conditions of life in prisons, notably owing to overcrowding; calls on the Member States to ensure that human dignity is respected in prison, as regards the material conditions, medical care, home leave, access to work and cultural or sporting activities and the strict compliance with the prison rules adopted by the Council of Europe; points out that one of the objectives of penitentiary law is to rehabilitate those who have been deprived of their freedom with a view to reintegrating them into society, and therefore urges the Member States to devote maximum attention to living conditions in p ...[+++]risons and to respect for the dignity and the fundamental rights of prisoners;

71. Draws attention to the unacceptable conditions in European places of detention, in particular the serious problem of overcrowding and the abject material conditions and circumstances deleterious to health that prevail in the European penal system; calls on the Member States to improve living conditions and hygiene facilities in places of detention, to provide adequate medical staff, offer detainees useful occupational activities and regulate working conditions in prisons;

31. Calls on the Member States to take all the necessary measures to ensure that minimum criteria for the respect of human dignity are complied with in prisons, in particular with regard to impartial treatment, non-discrimination, material health conditions, medical care, access to work, contacts with the outside world, prison leave, conditional release, religious and moral assistance, and access to work and socioeducational, cultural and sporting activities; calls, to this end, for the Council of Europe prison standards (R(873)) to be rigorously applied in prisons;