Updates to our Terms of Use

We are updating our Terms of Use. Please carefully review the updated Terms before proceeding to our website.

Friday, March 29, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

France Sees Sharp Spike in Asylum Applications in 2017

Official figures show that 100,412 persons applied for asylum in France in 2017, up 17 percent on the year before.

PARIS (AP) — Official figures show that 100,412 persons applied for asylum in France in 2017, up 17 percent on the year before.

Pascal Brice, director of the French Office for the Protection of Refugees (OFPRA), told CNEWS television Monday that the number seeking asylum was the highest level for "at least 40 years."

The highest asylum requests came from Albania, Afghanistan and Haiti.

Though France saw asylum requests spike further in 2017, Brice noted that Germany registered twice as many during the year.

About 36 percent of applicants were granted refugee status, a slight decrease on the year before.

The agency said a focus was placed on women victims of violence — over 6,000 girls and young women received refugee status to protect them from a risk of genital mutilation.

Categories / Civil Rights, Government, International, Politics

Subscribe to Closing Arguments

Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.

Loading...