“Warning signals abound”

by time news

“In the face of persecution, everyone has the right to seek asylum and to enjoy asylum in other countries” : as provided for in Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948. This breach in the sovereignty of States was confirmed by the Geneva Convention of 1951 and the Protocol of 1967.

Two provisions of the convention should be engraved in gold letters everywhere where one legislates and governs: one cannot turn back or expel a refugee on the borders of the territories where his life or his freedom would be threatened, nor hold against him his entry irregular.

The combined causes of forced displacement today affect 103 million people in the world, of whom 53 million are displaced within their own country, 43 million are refugees or asylum seekers, and 4 million are stateless.

Asylum in the European Union

The Member States of the European Union take part in the reception of refugees, three quarters of which are still carried out in low- or middle-income countries. In 2022, 981,000 asylum applications were registered within the EU, of which 25% in Germany and 16% in France. In relation to the number of inhabitants, the number of requests places France in 13th place. Protection measures represent 40% of decisions in Europe, 42% in France.

In France, the number of first asylum applications (131,000) and that of people who have been the subject of a protection measure (56,000) have never been so high since the creation of the current asylum system. asylum in 1952. If we include the 85,000 people who have had to flee Ukraine since February 2022 and benefit from temporary protection, around 500,000 people live in France under an international protection regime.

A strengthened asylum system

Over the decades, and more proactively over the past ten years, the French asylum system has been strengthened. The national reception system piloted by the French Office for Immigration and Integration (Ofii) now includes 110,000 places. Ofpra has been given the human resources to process asylum applications within an average of four months.

Deployed by the Ministry of the Interior, the Agir mechanism, largely inspired by the Accelair program created in 2002 by Forum Réfugiés (1), will support refugees in accessing training, employment and housing. Under the impetus of the Interministerial Directorate for the Reception and Integration of Refugees (Diair), regional cities conclude integration contracts with the State. The associations themselves have been strengthened to accomplish complex, demanding, sometimes exposed missions, serving a public both marked by hardship and committed to a new life project.

Nevertheless, the warning signs are not lacking. Limitations on the action of NGO rescue vessels in the Mediterranean have the effect of increasing the number of people missing at sea. requests from people arriving irregularly, in order to “filter” people in need of international protection and others who will have to return to their country of origin. This scheme poses enormous challenges in terms of respect for fundamental rights and reception logistics.

“France asylum spaces”

In France, the bill presented to the Council of Ministers on February 1, 2023 contains two main provisions regarding asylum. One wants to generalize the single judge at the National Court for the Right of Asylum, while the current model is the formation of judgment associating the president with two assessors, one of whom is appointed by the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR ). This French specificity nevertheless makes it possible to reinforce the quality of the procedure at the hearing.

The other measure creates “France Asylum spaces” associating, with the services of the prefectures and the Ofii, agents of the Ofpra, to simplify the process of the asylum seeker. Under no circumstances, however, in the name of a budgetary objective of reducing the length of the procedure, should the time necessary for a person who is most often vulnerable and faced with great precariousness be crushed to compose the narrative establishing the facts that ground her fears of persecution in the country she fled.

If it wants to make savings, the government must focus its efforts on the human resources made available to the Ofpra and the prefectures so that civil status documents and residence permits are issued quickly after the granting of protection. This will reduce the costs generated by keeping people in accommodation because they cannot access housing, and will speed up their access to employment, and therefore to an income. Refugees show every day that they aspire to be forgotten as such, to no longer be a burden for the country that welcomed them, and to contribute through their work to the national wealth: let them do so without delay.

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