Overview of the main changes since the previous report update

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The previous update of the report was published in June 2025.

International protection

Asylum procedure

• Key statistics: In 2025, 160,303 persons were registered as asylum applicants by the Ministry of Interior, a slight decrease from 2024 (169,956). The main nationalities represented were Ukraine, DR Congo, Afghanistan, Haiti, and Sudan. 145,211 asylum applicants lodged applications before OFPRA, also slightly less than in 2024 (153,715). No nationality breakdown was available. OFPRA indicated that the overall protection rate at first instance stood at 41.2% in 2025. The average first-instance processing time for all procedures increased slightly to 5.4 months (163 days) in 2025, compared to 4.5 months (about 138 days) in 2024 (see Statistics).
• Access to the territory – statistics: according to Eurostat, 10,235 (estimation) third country nationals were refused entry at France’s external borders. France continued to prolong the re-introduced border controls at its internal borders in place since 2015. The current temporary border control, covering all land, sea and air internal borders is valid from 1 May 2026 to 31 October 2026. Following litigation which lead to a change in the legal framework, refusals of entry can no longer be indiscriminately notified at internal borders. These decisions are now considered as arrests on the territory, which led to a sharp increase in this statistic in 2025 (+30% in 2025, +19% in 2024) (see Access to the territory and push backs).
• Access to the territory – UK border: According to the UK authorities, attempts to cross the Channel to join the United Kingdom reached 41,472 in 2025, compared with 36,816 in 2024. According to French authorities, 49,966 persons were detected trying to cross the Channel in 2025 (compared with 45,203 in 2024). On 10 July 2025, the UK and France announced a migration agreement aimed at deterring crossings of the English Channel. The treaty provides for people who arrive in the UK via the Channel to be returned to France and for the same number of people who are returned to France to be brought safely to the UK. According to France, as of February 2026, the agreement had enabled the return of 338 people to France, compared with 370 people admitted legally to the United Kingdom. The arrangements put in place to receive, refer and support people returned to France under this agreement are unclear. Several circumstances suggest that there is no dedicated support system in place, particularly for those who do not fall under France’s responsibility for asylum, and several migrants returned to France have attempted to re-enter the UK (see Access at the UK land and sea borders).
• Access to the territory – Italian border: At the south border, in the department of Alpes Maritimes (mainly at border point in Menton), authorities recorded 15,007 arrests of people trying to enter France irregularly in 2025. In the first 5 months of 2025, 2,634 persons were arrested at the border in the Hautes-Alpes (at and around the border point of Montgenevre), including 1,197 unaccompanied minors. In May 2025, the United Nations Committee Against Torture expressed concern about the practice of returning migrants and asylum seekers, including unaccompanied children, at the French-Italian border, as well as the refusal of access to the asylum procedure by the authorities present on the ground. Severe difficulties in accessing asylum were also highlighted by the General Controller of Places of Deprivation of Liberty (CGLPL) in November 2025, who reported that border police officers in the three different border police stations inspected did not inform individuals of their right to apply for asylum in France. The reports by the CGLPL also underscored extremely poor and illegal conditions of detention in the detention facilities at the French-Italian border (see Access at the Italian land border).

• Access to the territory – Spanish border: In 2025, 6,622 migrants were arrested in the east part of the French-Spanish border (Pyrénées-Orientales) and 5,189 were returned to Spain. Illegal returns to Spain continued to be reported in 2025 (see Access at the Spanish land border).
• Access to the territory – overseas territories: In Mayotte, in 2025, the media reported illegal police practices aimed at stopping boats arriving in Mayotte, allegedly leading to drownings (see Access at borders in overseas territories).

• New registration/lodging procedure: Following an April 2025 decree, the first ‘Espace France Asile’ centre was established in Cergy-Pontoise (Val d’Oise) to replace the GUDA. Under the new procedure, asylum applicants are summoned in the morning, register their application with the prefecture, after which the time of their appointment with OFPRA is given to them. Asylum applicants may therefore spend part of the day within the Espace France Asile without being able to leave, which has been an issue regarding meals when applicants were not informed of the duration of the procedure and the lack of food options inside the building. Moreover, no provision has been made for childcare; children are not normally allowed to attend these initial OFPRA appointments, and thus parents are forced to leave them alone in the waiting room, sometimes for long periods of time. Under this new procedure, it remains unclear to what extent supplementary information shared after this appointment is taken into account by OFPRA, given that it can only be sent to a generic email address (see Registration of the asylum application).
• Access to the procedure – registration delays: the registration delays recorded in the Grenoble GUDA in 2024 were resolved following a court order in July 2025. In Mayotte, the situation improved in May 2025 when access to the prefecture was restored (it had been closed since October 2024) but the media still reporting waiting times of several months to access asylum application records at the prefecture by the end of 2025, with more than 2,300 people still waiting for an appointment to register their application. Waiting times for an appointment to register the asylum claim were also well over the 3 day deadline in French Guiana, where the waiting times were over 18 months in 2024 and delays of 22 months were still observed in 2025 (see Registration of the asylum application).
• Travel to the first instance interview and appeal hearing: On 6 May 2025, the Council of State ruled that limiting the reimbursement of travel expenses for summons before OFPRA and CNDA to asylum applicants accommodated in CADA and HUDA violates the principle of equality due to an unjustified difference in treatment. To resolve this, instead of extending this right to other asylum applicants, the Directorate General for Foreigners in France chose to remove it for accommodated asylum applicants (see Regular procedure – Personal interview).
• Appeal procedure: territorialisation of the Court continued and was extended to 4 new regions on 1 September 2025. In 2025, the CNDA registered 60,065 appeals and took 53,086 decisions. 48% of total decisions by the Court were taken by a single judge, as opposed to a panel of 3, with 10,413 decisions following a hearing and 14,989 by order (without a hearing – 28% of all decisions). The average processing time for the CNDA to process a claim stood at 5 months and 15 days (see Regular procedure – Appeal).
• Dublin procedure: in 2025, French authorities placed 24,174 persons under Dublin procedure and sent 30,084 outgoing requests in 2025 according to Eurostat. At the end of 2025, 18,371 applicants were still in a Dublin procedure and 5,803 persons were re-channelled from a Dublin procedure to a regular or accelerated procedure (requalifiés) within the same year. The ratio of implemented transfers compared to outgoing requests was only of 12.9% in 2025, or 22.1% when taking into account only accepted requests, compared to 2% in 2024 (see Dublin).
• Unaccompanied children: age assessment is still carried out in a variety of ways depending on the territory, with severe shortcomings in some places. In 2025, the UN Committee of the rights of the Child reiterated its concerns and ruled that the situation where “those whose age is contested, or whose appeals are pending, are denied access to support services and left to survive on the streets, in parks, or in informal makeshift camps without enough food and drinking water, and with no health care or education [and] they remain in this situation until a definitive decision is made by a judge” amounted to a violation of article 12 (right to be heard) and article 37(a) (inhuman and degrading treatment) on the Convention on the Rights of the Child. A total of 9,981 young persons reported as unaccompanied minors were integrated in the national mechanism for childcare protection in 2025, compared to 13,554 in 2024 (see Age assessment of unaccompanied children).

Reception conditions

• Difficulties regarding the financial allowance: Many difficulties regarding the Asylum Seekers Allowance (ADA) persist in 2025. On many occasions, the allowance is paid late. Some asylum applicants are not used to using a bank card (the ADA is paid on a specific card) or a cash machine. In some accommodation centres, asylum applicants do not receive the same amount even if they are in similar situations, creating tensions between asylum applicants. According to local NGOs, it is very difficult to interact with OFII to resolve such problems, with a few exceptions. As of the end of December 2025, a total of 90,536 asylum applicants benefitted from the ADA (compared to 90,329 at the end of 2024) (see Access and forms of reception conditions).
• Access to material reception conditions: Comparing the number of asylum applications pending at the end of 2025 according to Eurostat (153,090) and the number of asylum applicants benefitting from reception conditions at this date (90,536 persons in total at the end of December 2025 according to OFII), more than 60,000 asylum applicants did not have reception conditions in France. the number of asylum applicants accommodated remained far below the number of persons registering an application. Regarding accommodation specifically, adding up the number of people eligible to reception conditions but that do not have accommodation to asylum applicants who do not benefit from reception conditions overall, approx. 88,000 asylum applicants were not accommodated in dedicated places as of the end of 2025, out of approx. 153,090 pending asylum applications. Nevertheless, the Budget Law for 2026 provided yet again for a funding cut which would reduce the number of places in reception system by approximately 5,000 places. Evacuation operations of encampments of migrants and people seeking asylum, including unaccommodated asylum applicants, in Paris, Calais, Grande-Synthe and the Dunkirk area, among others, continued in 2025. In November 2025, six NGOs took legal action against the French government for violating the human rights of the more than 2,000 migrants who are “surviving” in temporary camps around Dunkirk, notably in Loon-Plage and Grande-Synthe, calling for access ’to hygiene, food, healthcare and accommodation’ for all these people (see Access and forms of reception conditions).
• Material reception conditions in overseas France: In Mayotte, The NGO Human Rights Watch published a report on Mayotte in November 2025, noting in particular that ‘Many children, especially those living in informal settlements or from migrant families, face significant barriers to school enrolment’ (see Access and forms of reception conditions).

Detention of asylum seekers

• Statistics on detention: In 2025, 954 third-country nationals lodged a first asylum application while already in administrative detention, e., about 2% of the total of persons administratively detained in 2024 (40,592, no data available for 2025). Moreover, some rejected asylum seekers asked for a subsequent examination of their asylum claim while being detained, but no statistics have been available since 2020 (see Detention of Asylum Seekers). 

• Detention for failing to lodge an application with the competent authority and risk of absconding: the 2024 legal reform of asylum law foresees the possibility to place an asylum seeker under house arrest or in detention, if they fail to lodge an application with the competent authority and are considered at risk of absconding. In practice, this framework was only applied a dozen times in 2024 and in 2025 respectively in mainland France. However, it had become firmly established in the practice in Mayotte in 2024 and 2025 particularly given that it was impossible to access to the prefecture: only placement in a CRA enabled someone to have their asylum application registered. This practice appears to have come to an end with the reopening of the prefecture in May 2025 (see Grounds for detention).

• Detention in Dublin proceedings: Despite previous ministerial instructions to the contrary, in 2025 many Prefectures continued to systematically impose house arrest as soon as asylum seekers were placed in the Dublin procedure, without conducting an individualised assessment to establish whether an alternative to detention is required (see Detention under the Dublin Regulation). 

• Detention conditions at the border: Difficulties in accessing asylum were highlighted by the CGLPL in November 2025, who identified ‘numerous shortcomings resulting in serious violations of the rights of persons deprived of their liberty’ at the border police (PAF) facilities in Montgenèvre (on the French-Italian border). During their unannounced visit in May 2025, inspectors from this independent administrative authority noted ‘the appalling conditions in which’ migrants are detained. They criticised the ‘unsuitable, undersized premises lacking essential facilities’ (see Conditions in detention facilities).
• Detention of unaccompanied children: in October 2025, the UN Committee of the rights of the child highlighted that some unaccompanied children were detained in airport waiting zones or other border holding centres when their entry or identity was questioned. The Committee described the deprivation of these children’s liberty as ‘disproportionate and therefore arbitrary’, adding that it was harmful to children’s mental health (see Detention of unaccompanied children).

Content of international protection 

• Access to residence permits: For several years, delays by OFPRA in reconstructing the civil status documents of BIPs (9.1 average time in 2025, down from 10.1 in 2024 and 14.5 in 2023) caused delays in the issuance of residence permits. However, since the first half of 2025, prefectures are no longer required to wait for the issuance of civil status documents from OFPRA before processing residence permit applications from beneficiaries of international protection. Thus, in 2025, the processing times for civil status documents from the OFPRA were faster, and residence permits were regularly issued before the OFPRA documents were received. The remaining obstacles to the timely obtaining of residence permits lie in both the submission and processing of applications for such permits through the ANEF online service, which continues to present practical shortcomings. These issues were highlighted by the Ombudsperson in December 2024, and have since led several organisations to bring a case before the Council of State in 2025 seeking to compel the state to address them (see Residence permit).

• Family reunification: In June 2025, NGO La Cimade helped 66 families lodge a complaint with the Ombudsperson regarding the various obstacles they face during the family reunification procedure: an ill-suited online service, problems with booking appointments at consulates, particularly long processing times, unknown grounds for refusal, and lengthy and costly legal proceedings that often result in the refusal being found unlawful (45% of decisions in appeals against family reunification visa refusals ruled in favour of the applicants in 2023) (see Family reunification).

• Integration programme: the AGIR integration programme, launched in 2022, continued its deployment and 94 departments were to be covered by mid-2025, albeit with a restricted scope, including a maximum number of people supported has been set for each department, and prioritisation criteria based on an autonomous concept of vulnerability (compared to its definition in asylum proceedings (see Housing).

Temporary protection

The information given hereafter constitute a short summary of the Annex on Temporary Protection on 2025. For further information, see Annex on Temporary Protection.

Temporary protection procedure

• Key temporary protection statistics: According to Eurostat, in December 2025, there were 51,885 beneficiaries of temporary protection (including 34,645 women, i.e., 66.8%) registered by French authorities, excluding children. 9,640 decisions granting temporary protection were issued in 2025. According to UNHCR, 76,450 beneficiaries of temporary protection were recorded in France at the end of March 2026. In its 2025 preliminary statistics, the Government mentions 49,916 active temporary protection residence permits held by Ukrainians at the end of 2025.
• Access to asylum: According to Eurostat, 11,675 first time asylum applications were registered by Ukrainians nationals in 2025, compared to 13,270 in 2024 and 3,390 in 2023. According to OFPRA statistics, at the end of 2025, there were 25,780 Ukrainian beneficiaries of international protection in France (compared to 702 at the end of 2022), 9,211 Ukrainian nationals were granted international protection in 2025 (at first instance and in appeal). According to the government’s preliminary statistics, the protection rate of Ukrainians in 2025 was 91.5%.

Content of temporary protection

• Housing: the exceptional housing scheme upon arrival for beneficiaries of temporary protection (BTPs) is being gradually closed down and newly arrived displaced people from Ukraine who need housing assistance are integrated into the general emergency housing programme for people in a situation of vulnerability. Regarding longer term accommodation, at the end of 2025, 3,419 BTP were housed in a collective accommodation solution, and approximately 6,500 benefitted from support through citizen housing or in helping them get their own housing (intermédiation locative).
• Access to language courses: from 2022 to April 2024, BTPs could benefit from language training to learn French through existing common law programmes for the integration of refugees. However, this training was discontinued on 30 April 2024 due to budget cuts and was not reconducted in 2025.
• Education and social welfare: A guidance note issued in January 2025 by the public family benefits agency (CAF) confirmed that the requirement for regular school attendance is met (and thus allows for the payment of benefits) for children of BTP who are undertaking distance learning in Ukraine.