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Overview of statistical practice
In France, detailed statistics on asylum applications and first instance decisions are published annually by the Office of Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons (OFPRA) in its activity reports. The next OFPRA Activity Report will be published in spring 2022, several months after the end of the reporting year.[1] Statistics on the second instance procedure are to be found in the National Court of Asylum (CNDA) annual reports, which are also published several months after the end of their reporting period.[2]
However, thanks to “SI Asile”, an information system established by the Ministry of Interior in 2016, some provisional data are made available by the Ministry each year, in January.[3]
Discrepancies in statistics
The various sources of statistics provide different figures on the number of persons seeking asylum in France:[4]
- OFPRA statistics only cover persons who have lodged an asylum application with OFPRA. As discussed in Registration, those falling under a Dublin procedure are not allowed to lodge their claim. The statistics on France provided to Eurostat were incomplete until 2020 insofar as these were based on OFPRA figures;
- Ministry of Interior statistics refer to persons registered at a “single desk” (guichet unique de demande d’asile, GUDA).
- Persons re-channelled from a Dublin procedure to a regular or accelerated procedure (requalifiés) do not clearly appear in Ministry of Interior statistics if their application has been registered at the GUDA in previous years. They do, however, appear in OFPRA statistics.
- Persons arrived in resettlement programs and persons applying for asylum in detention are not registered at the GUDA but appear in OFPRA statistics.
Applications registered by the GUDA in France are usually higher than the reported number of applications lodged with OFPRA.
In 2021, 121,554 persons have been registered as asylum seekers by the Ministry of Interior (compared to 93,264 in 2020), of which 104,577 as first applicants (81,531 in 2020) and 16,977 subsequent applicants (11,733 in 2020). For its part, OFPRA reported a total of 103,011asylum seekers (compared to 96,424 in 2020). The latter include requalifies from previous years (not included in 2021 GUDA statistics) and people whose asylum application is not registered in GUDA (e.g. asylum claim in detention)
According to the Ministry of Interior, the nationality breakdown of people registered in GUDA for the first 10 countries of origin in 2021 was as follows: Afghanistan, Ivory Coast, Bangladesh, Guinea, Turkey, Albania, Georgia, Pakistan, Nigeria, Comoros.
Applications and granting of protection status at first instance: 2021
Detailed statistics on applications and first instance decisions were not made available by the national authorities at the time of writing of this report. The only indicative statistics published by the Ministry of Interior indicate a total of 121,554 applicants for international protection, out of which 104,577 first-time applicants and 16,997 subsequent applicants. The main nationalities represented were Afghanistan, followed by the Ivory Coast, Bangladesh, Guinea and Turkey.As regards decisions on international protection, the Ministry of Interior indicated that the overall protection rate at first instance stood at 25.5% in 2021. A detailed breakdown by nationality was not available at the time of writing of this report.
The following statistics are based on Eurostat statistics, which must be read with caution as they include inadmissibility decisions in rejection:
| Applicants in 2021 | Pending at end 2021 | Refugee status | Subsidiary protection | Rejection | Refugee rate | Sub. Prot. rate | Rejection rate | |
| Total | 120,685 | – | 21,340 | 12,535 | 103,140 | 15.5% | 9.2% | 72.3% |
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Breakdown by countries of origin of the total numbers
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| Afghanistan | 17,330 | – | 4,565 | 7,615 | 4,140 | 27.9% | 46.8% | 25.3% |
| Ivory Coast | 6,815 | – | 1,755 | 155 | 5,990 | 22.3% | 1.9% | 75.8% |
| Bangladesh | 6,700 | – | 325 | 100 | 7,810 | 3.9% | 1.3% | 94.8% |
| Guinea | 6,375 | – | 2,190 | 145 | 5,835 | 26.8% | 1.7% | 71.5% |
| Turkey | 5,375 | – | 840 | 40 | 5,490 | 13.1% | 0.6% | 86.3% |
Source: Eurostat. Protection rates were calculated and rounded up by the author of this report. Inadmissibility decisions are included in rejection. These figures may differ from the forthcoming figures that will be published by national authorities later in 2022 that were not yet available by the time of writing of this report.
Gender/age breakdown of the total number of applicants: 2021
| Number | Percentage | |
| Total number of applicants | 120,685 | 100% |
| Men (incl. children) | 82,235 | 68% |
| Women (incl. children) | 38,445 | 32% |
| Children | 28,555 | 23.7% |
Source: Eurostat. These figures may differ from the forthcoming figures that will be published by national authorities later in 2022 that were not yet available by the time of writing of this report.
Comparison between first instance and appeal decision rates: 2021
| First instance | Appeal | |||
| Number | Percentage | Number | Percentage | |
| Total number of decisions | 139,513 | 100% | 68,403 | 100% |
| Positive decisions | 35,636 | 25.5% | 15,112 | 22.1% |
| Negative decisions | 103,877 | 74.5% | 53,291 | 77.9% |
Source: OFPRA, Ministry of Interior
[1] OFPRA, Rapports d’activité, available in French at: https://goo.gl/zA8i7X.
[2] CNDA, Rapports annuels, available in French at: http://www.cnda.fr/La-CNDA/Donnees-chiffrees-et-bilans.
[3] Ministry of Interior, Chiffres clés – Les demandes d’asile, available in French at:https://bit.ly/397TDpi.
[4] For a discussion, see La Cimade, ‘Premier bilan de la demande d’asile en France en 2018’, 16 February 2019, available in French at: https://goo.gl/9oAYkV.