France sees sharp spike in asylum applications in 2017

PARIS – Official figures show that 100,412 persons applied for asylum in France in 2017, up 17 per cent 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 per cent 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.