France logged record number of asylum requests in 2023

A record number of people sought asylum in France last year, a rise of more than eight percent on the previous year, the county's refugee protection authority said Tuesday.

The announced increase comes weeks after the government passed a tough new immigration law under pressure from the far right.

Around 142,500 people applied in total -- including 123,400 for the first time -- and around a third of all requests for protection were accepted, the French Office for the Protection of Refugee and Stateless Persons (OFPRA) said in provisional figures.

Just 131,000 people had applied in 2022, with a slightly lower proportion of 29 percent receiving a positive response.

"This increase is not specific to France, but comes within a European context," OFPRA director Julien Boucher told AFP.

"It is much lower than the European average" increase, he added.

In Germany, first-time asylum applications rose by more than 50 percent last year to 329,120, official figures showed earlier this month.

In France, the largest number of first-time applicants last year were from Afghanistan for the sixth year in a row, OFPRA figures showed, with 17,500 Afghans seeking refuge away from their war-torn country.

Other large contingents applying for protection hailed from Bangladesh, Turkey, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Guinea.

France has a long tradition of welcoming refugees and immigrants, but a rise in the number of asylum seekers, a chronic affordable-housing shortage, and a cost-of-living crisis have worsened social tensions in the country.

Parliament last month backed a controversial new immigration law after it was hardened under pressure from the right.

A council of experts is to rule this week on whether it is in line with the constitution.