Author
National forms of protection
There is no other form of national protection directly linked to asylum procedure / system. There is, however, a residence permit for health reasons, which can be issued to people whose health condition ‘requires medical care, the lack of which could have exceptionally serious consequences for them, and who, in view of the health care available and the characteristics of the health care system in the country of origin, could not effectively receive appropriate treatment there’.[1] It must be requested within three months of registration of the asylum application, but may be requested later (even after rejection of the application) if new elements emerge (notably the diagnosis of a pathology not previously known to the asylum seeker). This can lead to the issuance of a one-year residence permit, renewable thereafter if the situation persists.
Return procedure
Regarding return, when the asylum seeker loses their right to remain in France, the administrative authority issues a return decision within a timeframe that can vary from a few days to several months. The law of 26 January 2024 set a deadline of 15 days for issuing these decisions, but in practice this depends on the resources of each prefecture, which are the authority responsible for issuing these, as opposed to the asylum rejection decisions, which are issued by OFPRA in first instance and CNDA on appeal. The right to remain in the territory of asylum seekers who receive a CNDA order (appeal rejection without a hearing) ends on the day the CNDA order is signed (and no longer on the day it is notified). In the event that an obligation to leave French territory (OQTF) is taken by the administrative authorities after the order has been signed, it can however only be executed once the CNDA order has been notified.
The length time limit for rejected asylum applications to appeal against obligations to leave French territory (OQTF) is doubled by the new law (from 15 days to 1 month).
Between 2019 and 2022, 139,516 return decisions were notified to rejected asylum seekers, and only 2,999 returns for these situations were recorded (some returns are not necessarily counted by the authorities).[2]
In situations where the right to remain is terminated as soon as the first-instance decision is taken, notably in the case of safe countries of origin, the return decision can be notified before the appeal is sent and/or examined. The asylum seeker can ask to suspend the application of the return decision, as part of the litigation aimed at contesting this decision, but in practice this is not effective: the administrative judge does not have the expertise and sufficient elements to judge that the person “presents serious elements of such a nature as to justify, on the basis of his or her asylum application, his or her stay on the territory during the examination of his or her appeal” and therefore relies on the rejection decision issued by OFPRA to refuse the suspension of the return decision. In practice, however, this return is rarely implemented before the CNDA decision, and the applicant can therefore benefit from a judge’s view of their application (with, however, an appeal phase with no reception conditions or right to stay).
[1] Article L.425-9 and sub. CESEDA.
[2] Cour des comptes, La politique de lutte contre l’immigration irrégulière, Janvier 2024, available in French here, 100.