• Since the capture of Kabul by the Taliban, the French political class has been agitated around the question of the reception of Afghan refugees in France.

  • According to Stanislas Guérini (LREM) and Laurent Jacobelli (RN), 10,000 Afghan asylum seekers apply for asylum in France each year and 9 out of 10 obtain it. 

  • If these figures are confirmed with

    20 Minutes

    by the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons (Ofpra), they cover a more nuanced reality. 

Since the conquest of Afghanistan by the Taliban and the controversial declaration by Emmanuel Macron on the need for France to "protect itself against irregular migratory flows", the question of the reception of exiled Afghans has dominated the political debate. national.

Guests respectively from Europe 1 and LCI, Wednesday August 18, Stanislas Guérini, General Delegate of La République en Marche (LREM) and Laurent Jacobelli, spokesperson for the National Rally (RN), thus advanced similar figures on the subject .

Stanislas Guerini: "Every year, 10,000 Afghans apply for asylum in our country. More than 9 out of 10 obtain asylum and refugee status. It is the honor of our country to do this" pic.twitter. com / Ps0ZIXEKBF

- Europe 1 🎧🌍📻 (@ Europe1) August 18, 2021

“Every year, 10,000 Afghans seek asylum in our country.

More than 9 out of 10 obtain asylum and refugee status ", the first argued, when the second said:" There are already 10,000 Afghan refugees per year who seek political asylum in France, 4 / 5ths of the year. get ”.

FAKE OFF

Reached by

20 Minutes

, Stanislas Guérini's entourage indicates that the latter was based on "the figures of asylum requests after examination by Ofpra (French Office for the protection of refugees and stateless persons) then by the Cnda (Court national asylum law) ”, while Laurent Jacobelli mentions as sources, in addition to an Ofpra press release, an article in“ L'Opinion ”dated 9 July entitled“ France accepts four Afghan refugees on five ".

Contacted by

20 Minutes

, Ofpra indicates that “the figures announced are exact. "" In 2020, around 10,000 Afghan nationals applied for asylum. More than 90% of them have obtained international protection, recognized by Ofpra or after appeal to the National Court of Asylum ", adds the organization, while specifying that" the rate of international protection communicated is the one for the first half of 2021 ”, this figure not yet having been published on its site.

Solenne Lecomte, in charge of the Asile coordination in Ile-de-France within La Cimade, an association to help migrants, qualifies these statistics, however: “The problem is that it is complicated to have the figures of total Afghan claimants protected in 2020 with official reports.

The net percentage of Afghan asylum seekers admitted by Ofpra is around 64% and that of the CNDA around 81% of agreements on appeals against some of the negative decisions of Ofpra.

There were around 2,700 appeals from Afghan applicants in 2020, but the percentage of around 81% applies only to decisions rendered in 2020, the appeals of which could be lodged in 2019. ”

Figures "to be taken with a grain of salt"

The ratio between asylum applications from Afghan citizens and obtaining international protection is indeed less than 90% in Ofpra's activity report for the year 2020. According to pages 108 and 109 of this document, out of a total of 10,364 Afghan requests, the total "Ofpra and Cnda admissions" thus amounts to 7,494, or 72.3% of requests.

A percentage up by just over 10% compared to 2019 (61.3% with 6,244 Ofpra and Cnda admissions out of 10,175 requests, according to pages 102 and 103 of the activity report), due in particular to of the Covid-19 crisis, "which greatly reduced international travel and durably affected [the] conditions of activity of Ofpra", which represented a 28% drop in asylum requests compared to 2019 .

"The [figures put forward on August 18] are therefore to be taken with a grain of salt, even if it is clear that Afghan applicants are generally recognized as being protected by asylum," adds Solenne Lecomte, who clarifies the situation. importance: "Most Afghan applicants (57%) obtain subsidiary protection due to an armed conflict - stable figures, which were already found in 2019 - against only 7% who are protected by the Geneva thanks to the refugee status for persecution for political opinions.

"

Subsidiary protection less guarantee of stability than refugee status

“The difference is important since conventional refugee protection guarantees protection over 10 years against a 4-year residence permit for subsidiary protection, which can also be reassessed according to the situation in the country. It is much less protective in terms of stability: now that the Taliban are in power, one could consider that it is no longer a question of a generalized conflict but of a situation which is stabilizing ”, explains the specialist of La Cimade. .

Solenne Lecomte further recalls that the "reception conditions for Afghan asylum seekers" are far from "favorable": "They are often rather young and lonely men, [...] forced to live on the street, because non-priority in undersized accommodation facilities.

In addition, many of them are deprived of material reception conditions (accommodation, allowance and administrative and legal follow-up) due in particular to their Dublin journey [the fact of having previously registered their asylum application in another European country than France] ”.

Politics

Afghanistan: Why is Emmanuel Macron already under pressure on the migration issue?

Media

Report information that you think is false to the "Fake Off" team of "20 Minutes"

  • National gathering

  • LREM

  • Asylum seekers

  • Asylum

  • Fake off

  • Afghanistan

  • Refugees

  • Society