Immigration: what are the criteria for obtaining refugee status?

Juline Garnier 12:28 p.m., November 18, 2022

The arrival in France last Friday of the humanitarian ship Ocean Viking, with 234 survivors on board, caused the entire political class to react.

If the Ministry of the Interior has nevertheless wanted to be firm in welcoming these refugees, many questions remain and certain points remain unclear.

Starting with obtaining the right of asylum.

Who can claim political refugee status?

For how long ?

And what is the process?

The answer lies with Ofpra, the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons.

What is refugee status?

Refugee status is defined by the Geneva Convention, in article 1.

It states that "the term refugee applies to anyone who has a well-founded fear of being persecuted because of his race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion".

This also specifies that the person wishing to obtain asylum must be "outside the country of which he is a national or in which he had his habitual residence", and to which he cannot return, because of this fear.

As a result, for example, in the context of the war in Ukraine, Ukrainian citizens who fled the war can, with supporting evidence, benefit from this status in many cases.

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But the application of this article is subject to the interpretation of the National Court of Asylum and some situations are less obvious than others.

Europe 1 cited for example the case of a Russian refugee, who claimed to be persecuted in her country.

However, his file did not present sufficient evidence and his request was rejected.

For how long ?

Still according to Ofpra, after examination, people recognized as refugees are placed under the legal and administrative protection of the institution.

They can thus benefit from a residence card valid for ten years.

This is issued by the Prefecture and is renewable after a new examination of the file.

With this document, any refugee can legally live in France, work and benefit from certain social benefits, according to the code for the entry and stay of foreigners and the right to asylum, called Ceseda.

What is the procedure ?

Once on French territory, each migrant must go to a first reception structure for asylum seekers, managed by associations, which allows applicants to be supported.

Throughout the duration of the process, it also provides accommodation, medical support, schooling for the children and management of the exit from the centre.

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The structure then has three days to register the application and issue a summons to the "one-stop asylum application window", also called Guda.

Composed of agents from the prefecture and agents from the French Office for Immigration and Integration (Ofii), there are 34 in mainland France.

Registration comprises two stages: an interview at the prefecture – to trace the applicant's career path – and an assessment at the Ofii.

An asylum application certificate will then be issued.

This is valid for one month and renewable throughout the procedure.

The dossier is then submitted to the Ofpra.

The institution has a period of 21 days to acknowledge receipt of the file and send a summons.

In the normal procedure, the Ofpra decides on the asylum application within six months of its submission to the Office.

If the decision is positive, the asylum seeker will finally be able to obtain refugee status.

If it is negative, he benefits from an appeal, which triggers other procedures.

It should be noted that there are several forms of protection provided by the State: refugee status, subsidiary protection or temporary protection;

each with its specificities.

If access to refugee status is highly conditioned, other forms of protection may be requested by foreigners arriving in France.

In all, 15,000 asylum applications were granted on the territory in 2021.