Last year, the number of refugee applications for admission to France increased by nearly 30%.

Agence France-Presse reported that statistics released on January 20 show that after a record decline in the number of immigrants in 2020, all immigration categories show signs of recovery in 2021. Immigration is a hot topic in the presidential race.

According to provisional data released by the Ministry of the Interior, the Package Window (GUDA) for the registration of asylum applications by the French Office for Integration and Migration records 104577 first asylum applications, a figure that increased by 28.3% in 2021.

Part of the reason for the increase in refugee claims is the arrival of thousands of Afghan nationals from Kabul to France after the Taliban took power in August 2021. In October 2001, the United States led France and other allies in a war on terror against Afghanistan, which lasted nearly 20 years. In August 2021, France also began its withdrawal following a sudden U.S. withdrawal, with the first 3,000 people withdrawn including 2,600 Afghans.

Afghanistan thus continues to be the main source of Asylum Seekers from France, filing 16,126 applications (+62 per cent), well ahead of Côte d'Ivoire (6,268), Bangladesh and Guinea.

But the overall figures are still much lower than before the outbreak, when authorities received 138,420 first-time asylum requests in 2019. "The pandemic continues to limit migrant flows in 2021," the Home Office concluded.

Julien Boucher, director of the French Agency for the Protection of Refugees and Statelessness (OFPRA), who oversees the qualification of refugees, said: "The outbreak has not eliminated the traditional determinants that lead to the emergence of refugee groups: in some cases, it can even be considered to exacerbate instability in certain areas. It is reasonable to believe that the number of people who have taken refuge in France may return to pre-pandemic levels after the closures caused by the pandemic are over. ”

At the same time, evictions are increasing, and since the COVID-19 pandemic, the government is working to improve the efficiency of this work. This is also what the right and far right will be concerned about during the presidential election.

The total number of undocumented aliens deported increased by 5.5% compared to 2020, but it is still far from pre-pandemic levels. As a result of the pandemic, the number of evictions in 2020 has been cut in half compared to the previous year.

Specifically, 10,091 people were deported in 2021, and the number of "forced evictions" increased by 10.8%. Overall, 16,819 irregularly identified aliens left France in 2021, including receiving or not receiving an expulsion order.

The General Directorate-General for Foreigners Affairs (DGEF) said that evictions during the pandemic were not easy: consular activities were reduced, it was difficult to obtain consular passes, cross-border traffic was reduced, COVID-19 tests were refused...

In view of the difficulties of consular pass cooperation, France announced in September 2021 a significant tightening of visas for nationals of maghreb countries (Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia) where it is difficult to carry out expulsion work. That decision remains valid to this day.

However, Morocco (69,000) and Algeria (63,000) were the countries with the most visas in 2021 and grew slightly (+2.9%). Saudi Arabia added 328 percent, third, ahead of Tunisia.

According to provisional data, the issuance of residence permits increased by 21.9% in 2021 to 271675, approaching 277406 in 2019 before the epidemic. The Home Office added that Britons were separately counted and were not included in the above data. Under the framework of Brexit, France has issued 96,632 residence permits to British people.

(Editor: Summer Rain)