France is expected to register nearly 100,000 asylum applications in 2021, a "
slight increase
" compared to 2020 but still far from the record year 2019, said Wednesday, December 8 Julien Boucher, Director General of the French Protection Office refugees and stateless persons (Ofpra).
Read alsoThe French asylum machine facing the wave of Afghan applicants
"
The overall demand should be around 100,000 applications,
" said the boss of Ofpra, in charge of granting refugee status, heard a few weeks before the end of the year by the law committee of Senate.
This is "
slightly higher compared to 2020
", when 96,000 requests were made, but a level which remains "
significantly lower than that of the pre-health crisis
".
"Between 6,500 and 8,000 monthly requests"
In 2019, around 133,000 requests were registered by Ofpra. Since the start of the year, this body has recorded “
between 6,500 and 8,000 monthly requests
”, against 10 to 11,000 in 2019, he said. Julien Boucher however noted a "
peak
" of nearly 11,000 requests in September, "
linked to the introduction of most of the requests from Afghan nationals evacuated as part of Operation Apagan
".
Following the Taliban's seizure of power in Afghanistan, Operation Apagan allowed the evacuation of more than 2,600 Afghans threatened for having worked for France or for their commitment to human rights.
The position of Afghanistan, the leading provider of aspirants for refugee status in France for years, continued to strengthen, "
this country representing since the start of the year 14% of the first asylum requests
", underlined Julien Boucher.
Read also Does France accept 80% of Afghan asylum seekers against 15% for Germany?
According to him, the return of the asylum request to the pre-Covid level could take place in 2022. The director of Ofpra also welcomed the “
drastic reduction
” of the stock of pending cases. 'review,
reduced
from "
approximately 90,000 at the end of October 2020 to approximately 50,000
" in November 2021. A reduction considered "
essential
" and a "
necessary prerequisite for the achievement of Ofpra's objectives in terms of deadline processing
”of new requests.
In 2020, it took "
about eight and a half months
" for an application to be processed.