The number of asylum applications fell by 41% in France last year under the effect of the health crisis, marking a sharp break after years of increase since the migration crisis of 2015, according to immigration statistics published Thursday January 21.
Read also: Germany: 30% drop in asylum applications in 2020
"
Such a drop is explained by the health crisis of Covid-19 and more precisely by the impact of confinements on the activity of GUDAs (one-stop shops for asylum seekers) and on the movement of foreigners
", commented the Ministry of the Interior by publishing these provisional figures.
In 2020, 81,669 first asylum requests were made in these counters against 138,420 (-41%) in 2019, while 115,888 requests in all situations (reviews, Dublin procedures etc.) were taken into account last year against 177,822 the previous year.
"
It's a strong break
," agrees Julien Boucher, director general of Ofpra, the body responsible for examining applications for refugee status, awarded in about 24% of cases (37% after appeal).
"
The magnitude of the decline in asylum demand is an important change, especially since we were on a marked upward trend in recent years, and the beginning of 2020 followed this trend
", a- he stressed.
This decline in France is part of a European trend, after several months of closure of the external borders of the European Union: in Germany, the number of asylum applications has also fallen by 30%.
The pandemic has had "
significant consequences on both incoming and outgoing (migratory) flows
", the Ministry of the Interior also commented, noting a halving of expulsions of people in an irregular situation (-51.8% of "
forced
"
removals
), a file on which "
the emphasis is resolutely
" by the Minister of the Interior Gerald Darmanin, insists in his entourage.
In addition, the statistics for this year when "
everything was destabilized by the Covid-19
" also highlight an 80% collapse in the number of visas issued: 712,311 against 3.53 million in 2019. This decline, driven by the The collapse of tourist visas is mainly due to the fall in the number of Chinese visitors.
They were by far the top visa holders for France in 2019 with 757,500 documents, and moved to fourth place with only 71,451 visas issued in 2020.
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