France gets ‘historic’ number of asylum requests despite Macron’s promise to cut migration
A “HISTORIC number” of asylum requests were made in France last year, up by 17 per cent to more than 100,000 people, official figures show.
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Albanian ‘refugees’ were the biggest single group of asylum applicants last year despite being from a so-called ‘safe’ country, followed by Afghans and Haitians.
Pascal Brice, the head of the French refugee protection agency Ofpra, said the number of applications had already increased by 6.5 per cent in 2016, before the latest 17 percent rise.
He said: “It confirms that France is one of the countries receiving the highest number of asylum claims in Europe.
“It’s a historic level, but not a massive influx. We can handle the situation.”
However, he added the numbers were half of those recorded by Germany last year.
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It’s a historic level, but not a massive influx. We can handle the situation.
Ofpra figures also showed the overall rate of successful asylum claims had dropped to 36 percent from 38 percent in 2016.
Albanians made up the biggest single group applying for asylum in France, filing a total of 7,630 claims, up 66 percent from 2016, according to Ofpra.
However, the acceptance rate was just 6.5 percent and most face deportation as their home country is considered ‘safe’.
Afghans made up the second biggest group of asylum seekers with nearly 6,000 applications, followed by migrants from Haiti, Sudan and Guyana.
The Ofpra figures also showed a steep rise in asylum claims lodged by migrants from French-speaking west Africa, namely Ivory Coast and DR Congo.
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The west Africans are part of a “wave” of migrants crossing into Europe from lawless Libya, Mr Brice said.
Responding to the unprecedented number of people seeking refuge in France, French interior minister Gerard Collomb told AFP some 26,000 illegal immigrants had been sent home last year, adding that the number of forced returns had increased by 14 per cent.
The 17 percent increase is “exceptional,” Mr Collomb stressed, adding the aim was to have an effective and humane return policy.
François Gemenne, a French migration expert, for his part, told Europe 1 radio that the increase in asylum claims was “substantial” but not “explosive,” saying that the high rate of arrivals could be explained by the sharp rise in the number of displaced people needing protection worldwide.
Mr Gemenne said: “The European Union has so far failed to respond to the refugee crisis with a common and concerted migration policy. And France is bearing the burden of this failure.”
