About migrants in France – in 2022 their number increased by 56,000 people

At the end of last year, the total number of foreigners who received asylum in France exceeded half a million and amounted to 547,000 people. Who are they, how many Russians and Ukrainians are among them?

This is stated in the annual report of the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons * (OFPRA), published on July 3. Last year, more than 56,000 people received positive answers to their asylum applications. The number of Russians has increased: 75% more Russian citizens have applied for asylum in France in 2022.

Over the past year, 56,276 people received this status. These include both “first instance” decisions (OFPRA) and decisions of the National Court of Refugees (CNDA) which deal with appeals from applicants denied by the OFPRA.

in reporting, writes BB.LV, refugees from Ukraine did not enter, after the start of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation, they received in the countries EU temporary protection and special status. There are approximately 100,000 Ukrainians in France who fled the war and live under temporary European protection.

27% more than a year earlier, OFPRA received 131,000 applications for protection from new arrivals in France in 2022. For the fifth year in a row, people from Afghanistan lead in the number of asylum seekers – more than 17 thousand people. 8600 applications were filed by those who came from Bangladesh, a little less, 8463 applications were filed by those who fled from Turkey. Georgians filed 8,099 applications, while the number of asylum seekers from the Democratic Republic of the Congo was almost 6,000.

The OFPRA service notes that in the context of the Russian war and the tightening of the repressive regime in the Russian Federation in 2022, the number of asylum applications filed by immigrants from Russia increased by 75%. However, in absolute terms, we are talking about only 2617 Russians who applied to OFPRA. The reasons why people from the Russian Federation ask for asylum have changed, the report notes:

“Russians are now reporting threats due to their political anti-war views, as well as their refusal to be drafted or mobilized into the Russian armed forces.”

Agence France-Presse reports that the National Court for Refugee Rights (CNDA) is preparing to issue a ruling on July 20 that should establish jurisprudence in cases of Russian deserters and conscientious objectors.

OFPRA’s annual report highlights the acceleration of its own asylum processing. The average decision-making time has almost halved during the year, to 159 days. In 2921, this figure was 261 days. At the end of last year, the service notes, the period for considering petitions was even reduced to four months, “the shortest period in the last fifteen years.”

In 2022, the number of positive decisions on asylum applications increased slightly. 29% of applicants received protection – 3% more than in 2021. OFPRA also emphasizes that they were able not only to consider all new applications, but also to make decisions on some of the previously accumulated dossiers. At the end of last year, according to the report, 47,300 applications remained pending.

Previously, our publication described in detail, what refugees from Ukraine need to know about Greece.

*Stateless or stateless person – an individual who does not have any citizenship or nationality and does not have evidence that could establish his belonging to any citizenship or nationality. As of 2017, 12 million people in the world were stateless.

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