Author
Asylum seekers benefit from freedom of movement in France; except for persons who introduce an asylum application in an administrative detention centre or who are under house arrest, for instance asylum seekers under Dublin procedure (see Detention of Asylum Seekers).
However, reception conditions are offered by OFII in a specific region where the asylum seeker is required to reside. The national reception scheme assigns a reception centre or a region to asylum seekers, taking into account as much as possible the vulnerability assessment made by OFII and the general situation of the asylum seeker. The assignment to a reception centre is an informal decision, meaning that no administrative act is issued to the asylum seeker, therefore it cannot be appealed. This assignment is only considered for those having registered their application in Île de France.[1]
Following the 2018 reform, allocation to a specific region can be conducted even if the applicant is not offered an accommodation place.[2] Non-compliance with the requirement to reside in the assigned region entails a termination of material reception conditions. Freedom of movement is therefore restricted to a region defined by OFII. In practice, these new measures are only applicable since January 2021 following the publication of a new national reception scheme.[3] However, the Ministry of Interior assured that this regional assignment would only be applied as long as accommodation is secured; and this commitment has been respected in practice since 2021. But an NGO noticed that accommodation proposals outside Paris region were sometimes formulated for people who had not requested accommodation, leading to an unjustified and penalizing deprivation of reception conditions.[4]
In practice, most asylum seekers are concentrated in the regions with the largest numbers of reception centres, namely in Grand-Est, Auvergne-Rhône Alpes, and Ile de France. The aim of the new scheme put forward in December 2020 is to better distribute asylum seekers across the territory, i.e., starting with the distribution from Ile de France to other regions. However, this plan had a negative impact on accommodation in these regions, as places were being mobilised for Parisian orientations, but local situations have not improved and it is now becoming almost easier to be accommodated from Paris than from other places.[5]
Persons may have to move from emergency facilities, possibly to a transit centre (CAES) to finally settle in a regular reception centre, thus gradually progressing to more stable housing.
Between 2021 and 2024, out of 108,284 people who were offered an orientation outside of Ile-de-France (Paris region), 29,523 refused and 14,241 who accepted ultimately did not go to the designated accommodation, leading in total to a deprivation of reception conditions for 43,764 people.[6] The average rate of refusals of orientation was 27.3% overall between 2021 and 2024.[7] According to parliamentarians authors of a report on this issue in 2023,[8] the increase of the refusal rate in 2022 is to be explained by the larger proportion of Turkish and Bangladeshi nationals, who are among the nationalities that refuse the orientation the most.[9] However, the trend of increased refusals seems to have continued in 2023-2024: while the number of orientations offered to asylum seekers increased by 24.5% between 2021-2022 (48,230) and 2023-2024 (60,054, given that there were 108,284 overall between 2021 and 2024), refusals and no-shows in the designated accommodation increased much more significantly in proportion, with a 43.5% increase in refusals (12,124 refusals in 2021-2022, 17,399 in 2023-2024) and a 50% increase in no shows (5,704 in 2021-2022, 8,537 in 2023-2024).
Overseas France: The asylum request certificate only authorises stay in the territorial community where it was issued if it is Saint-Barthélemy, Saint-Martin, Wallis and Futuna Islands, and French Polynesia.[10]
Furthermore, the holder of this certificate issued in an overseas department (Guyana, Mayotte, Martinique, Réunion, Guadeloupe) is not exempt from a “Schengen” visa to enter the Schengen area, therefore to travel to mainland France.
Finally, when a person obtains a residence permit linked to their international protection in Mayotte, they cannot leave this territory where residence permits are “territorialised”.
[1] Assemblée nationale, Rapport fait au nom de la Commission des finances sur l’orientation directive, 24 May 2023, available in French at: https://bit.ly/3PCMCS0.
[2] Article L. 551-4 Ceseda.
[3] Ministry of Interior, ‘Schéma national d’accueil des demandeurs d’asile et d’intégration des réfugiés 2021-2023’, 17 December 2020, available in French at : https://bit.ly/3tOyhFK.
[4] La Cimade, ‘Vers un nouveau schéma national d’accueil : orientations directives et refus des conditions matérielles d’accueil’, 12 March 2024, available in French at : https://bit.ly/3x4yNFx.
[5] Forum refugies, Hébergement : un double dispositif de répartition qui impacte les régions d’accueil, 10 October 2023, available in French at : https://bit.ly/3IQA7Pb.
[6] Data from ministry of Interior obtained by La Cimade and published on their website, available in French here.
[7] Data from ministry of Interior obtained by La Cimade and published on their website, available in French here.
[8] Assemblée nationale, Rapport fait au nom de la Commission des finances sur l’orientation directive, 24 May 2023, available in French at: https://bit.ly/3PCMCS0.
[9] Ibid.
[10] Articles L.441-1 to L.446-5 Ceseda.