Asylum claims in France last year hit a record 100,000, official figures showed on Monday, as French President Emmanuel Macron’s government draws up hotly debated new legislation on immigration.
“It confirms that France is one of the countries receiving the most asylum claims in Europe,” Pascal Brice, head of France’s refugee protection agency OFPRA, told reporters.
“It’s a historic level,” he said, though he added that the numbers are just half of those seen in neighboring Germany last year.
Photo: EPA
Macron’s government is preparing to unveil a bill on immigration next month, but his centrist Republique En Marche (Republic on the Move) party are divided on how to tackle the issue.
Macron and French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe have vowed to speed up the process for managing asylum requests and offering improved conditions for successful applicants.
However, they have also promised a tougher line on economic migrants that would see an increased number of deportations and tighter controls on people arriving.
France last year forcibly removed 26,000 people from the country, a 14 percent increase on the year before, French Minister of the Interior Gerard Collomb told reporters on Monday.
“The goal now is to improve the conditions of repatriation, whether voluntary or forced,” he added.
In his New Year’s message, Macron had warned that France “cannot welcome everyone,” although he pledged an immigration policy that walked the line between “humanity and efficiency.”
Albanians made up the biggest group applying for asylum in France last year — about 7,600 adults, almost all of them set to be sent home, because their home country is considered “safe.”
Brice attributed the 66 percent jump in Albanian asylum claims to “economic emigration,” an issue he said was worrying authorities in both countries.
Albania in July last year announced an action plan to fight trafficking, with France complaining that too many spaces in its refuges are taken up by Albanians who will never be granted asylum.
Afghans made up the second-biggest group with nearly 6,000 applications, followed by refugees from Haiti, Guyana and Sudan.
Applications from Syria were down 10 percent to just more than 3,000, though almost all of them were granted asylum.
OFPRA also reported a sharp rise in applications from francophone west Africa, including Ivory Coast and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
They were part of the wave of refugees crossing from Libya to Europe, Brice said.
Migrants’ rights groups last month heavily criticized a decision to take a census of the population of refugee shelters, saying this went against their mission to provide unconditional aid.
Under pressure, Philippe promised a public consultation.
Though the notorious “Jungle” camp in Calais was dismantled in 2016, many refugees continue to head to the northern French coast hoping to reach Britain, an issue which will be on the agenda when Macron heads to London for talks later this month.
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