Asylum requests at a record level in France in 2022, deportations increase by 15%

Asylum applications in France approached their record level in 2022, with more than 137,000 first applications lodged, while deportations increased by 15% but remained below their pre-Covid level, according to provisional statistics unveiled on Thursday by the Ministry of the Interior.

With 137,046 first asylum applications recorded in the dedicated one-stop shops (Guda), this number has increased by 31.3% compared to 2021. All cases included (re-examinations, minors, Dublin procedures, etc.), they even exceed the pre-pandemic record, with 156,103 requests in 2022 (151,283 in 2019).

The Ministry of the Interior recorded 15,396 expulsions of foreigners in 2022, 15% more than in 2021 but a third less than in 2019, the year in which 23,746 expulsions were recorded.

"In accordance with my instructions, priority has been given to delinquent foreigners: 3,615 delinquent foreigners were expelled in 2022, compared to 1,834 in 2021, i.e. twice as many", reacted on Twitter the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin. .

In 2022, deportations of illegal aliens increased by more than 15%.

In accordance with my instructions, priority has been given to foreign offenders: 3,615 foreign offenders were deported in 2022, compared to 1,834 in 2021, i.e. twice as many.

— Gérald DARMANIN (@GDarmanin) January 26, 2023

Regularizations increased by 8%, with 34,029 “exceptional admissions for residence” in 2022. This increase is “driven by salaried economic reasons”, i.e. regularizations of salaried workers in an irregular situation, which increased by 29 .1%, said the Ministry of the Interior.

Immigration Bill

At the end of 2022, according to Beauvau, 65,833 Ukrainians benefited from temporary protection in France, a figure which does not take minors into account.

The majority of these arrivals were recorded before the start of the conflict or in the first weeks of the Russian invasion, with 50,000 temporary protection granted until April.

The immigration figures should serve as a basis for the contests between the majority and the opposition, in particular LR, around the immigration bill carried by the government, which must be presented to the Council of Ministers on February 1 according to the Ministry of the Interior.

The text, which will probably come to first reading in March in the Senate, aims above all to facilitate the expulsion of foreigners who present a threat to public order, in particular through a “structural” reform of asylum and litigation for foreigners.

It also plans to promote integration through language and work, through the creation of a residence permit “Métiers en tension”.