Asylum applications, publication of 20 June 2022

Following the significant impact of the COVID-19 health crisis in 2020 on the movement of foreigners and the activity of the administrations responsible for registering and examining their applications, there is a resumption in 2021 of the number of asylum applications and the decisions taken thereon There are 104 381 first applications and 16,987 requests for review made in GUDA. 13 003 requests should be added, in particular as a result of the reclassification of procedures initially identified as belonging to other EU Member States under the Dublin Regulation but which did not give rise to a transfer, or as part of the refugee resettlement programme conducted in conjunction with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. 103 164 asylum applications were registered at OFPRA (see Box p3), an increase of 7.0 % compared to 2020. In addition, the Agency made 139,810 decisions. As a result of the human reinforcements allocated to the Office, this sharp increase in decisions taken (+ 55.7 %), which exceeds the number of registered applications, has resulted in a significant destocking of files filed in previous years. The number of agreement decisions recorded a more marked increase (+ 72.1 %), OFPRA having taken 35,919, compared to 20,866 in 2020. The National Asylum Court (CNDA) also dealt with appeals prior to 2021 and delivered 68,403 decisions, i.e. + 62.8 % compared to 2020, including 15 112 annulments (protection agreements in second instance). In addition, there are 3,348 protections granted by the OFPRA to minors following cancellations concerning adult accompanying children pronounced by the CNDA (see box). Overall, in 2021, the number of protection status decisions taken by OFPRA and CNDA stood at 54,379, an increase of 63.8 % compared to 2020. In the end, the synthetic protection rate (see box) is 39.2 %, almost stable(+ 0.3 points).