President of the French Court of Auditors Didier Migaud and President François Hollande
As reported by Radio France Internationale (RFI), on October 20, France published the remarks that the Court of Auditors had sent to the Prime Minister in July after an audit of the refugee reception system. According to the supervisory body, the procedure for examining asylum applications needs radical reforms. In France, compared to other European countries, it is too lengthy and costly for the budget.
Costliness of the system
The Court of Auditors notes that spending on refugee reception is growing even faster than their numbers. If over a five-year period – from 2009 to 2014 – the number of asylum seekers in France increased by 36%, the costs of their maintenance jumped by 54%.
The amount that asylum seekers cost the budget is difficult to calculate precisely, the auditors admit. For example, in 2013, 690 million euros were spent on their resettlement and social benefits. However, these expenses are not limited to that: the auditors could not calculate the costs of medical care and education for the children of those who apply for asylum in France.
What is the reason for such costliness of the procedure? In its excessive length, the Court of Auditors believes. In France, asylum applications are processed much longer than in other EU countries. If in France migrants currently wait an average of 2 years for a response from the authorities, then in Germany, for example, the wait lasts only one year.
The highest authority for controlling French public finances, however, acknowledges that it made its conclusions before the reform of the asylum procedure was carried out. This reform was approved by the French parliament last summer. Its main goal is to reduce the time for processing asylum applications from 2 years to 9 months.
From refugees to illegal immigrants
Another feature of France, notes the President of the Court of Auditors Didier Migaud, is the extremely low rate of deportation of foreigners who have been denied asylum. The supervisory body believes that 96% of unsuccessful refugees who receive a negative response to their application nevertheless remain in France. Deportation orders are enforced in only 7% of cases. On average, for other categories of illegal immigrants, the deportation rate reaches 17%, the auditors emphasize.
These calculations are illustrated by official statistics from the Ministry of the Interior for last year. According to the General Directorate for Foreign Nationals, in 2014 a little more than 40,000 applicants were denied asylum in France. Of these, only 1,400 were deported from the country!
The Court of Auditors makes a conclusion extremely unpleasant for the government: the state in France effectively does not control the stay on its territory of foreigners who have been denied asylum.
Government objections
The government hastened to object to the auditors, pointing out the inaccuracy of the calculations. Prime Minister Manuel Valls regrets that the Court of Auditors did not take into account, for example, those foreigners who, after being denied asylum, stay in France completely legally. For example, on a special "medical visa" – for treatment and medical services that they cannot receive in their home country (6,500 people per year). The auditors' calculations also did not include those who, while agonizingly waiting for asylum, find happiness in France, start a family with French citizens and have children. 9,000 former asylum seekers annually receive a "family" residence permit in France as parents of children with French citizenship, the Ministry of the Interior notes.
The Court of Auditors' "gift" to the National Front and the Republicans
Right-wing and far-right French politicians did not dwell on the details of the controversy between the Court of Auditors and the government over the accuracy of statistics. For them, the immigration issue is one of the main ones in the political and electoral struggle. And criticism of the migration policy of the current government, especially from the Court of Auditors, is a perfect opportunity to talk about a favorite topic.
Deputy head of the National Front Florian Philippot immediately seized on the figure – 96% of those denied asylum remain in France. Marine Le Pen's ally called Prime Minister Valls' objections "irresponsible." "The reality for the prime minister is devastating: the law is not enforced, spending on the procedure has risen sharply, as has the number of asylum seekers," Philippot said, calling the refugee reception system "ruinous and ineffective." Le Pen's adjutant also took a swipe at the French right, who were in power for 10 years (from 2002 to 2012) and did nothing to solve the problem. The National Front, of course, has the solution: a "decisive reform of the right to asylum" is necessary for France, according to Philippot.
French right-wingers called the problem of asylum seekers illegally staying in France a "scandal." The secretary of the Republicans party on migration issues, Guillaume Larivé, called the current asylum system a "factory for producing illegal immigrants." "The government must open its eyes to the real situation: tens of thousands of foreigners who are not genuine political refugees illegally remain each year in France," said the ally of former President Nicolas Sarkozy, leader of the Republicans.
Guillaume Larivé also listed the proposals of the French right to solve the problem. They contained little new, however. The list of "safe countries," whose citizens have no particular reason to seek asylum abroad, already exists. The demand to comply with the legally established time limit for processing asylum applications is hardly revolutionary. Increasing the detention period for illegal immigrants (currently a maximum of 45 days) is also unlikely to fundamentally solve the problem.
Politicians' emotions and dry statistics
The dry statistical reality, by the way, is very far from the emotional statements of some politicians about "hordes" of economic migrants who enter France under the guise of refugees and then roam around Voltaire's homeland in tens (or even hundreds!) of thousands, consuming billions of euros from the poor French budget.
Gone are the days when France ranked first in Europe in the number of refugees accepted. As noted by the head of the Court of Auditors, Didier Migaud, in 2014 France was only in fourth place – after Germany, Italy and Sweden.
Over the past 8 years, the number of asylum seekers arriving annually in France has doubled. However, in the period 2013-2015, this number stabilized at 65,000 people (approximately 0.1% of France's population). To put it mildly, a small number compared to Germany, which in 2014 received more than 200,000 asylum applications (according to Eurostat), and this year expects an influx of 1 million migrants.
The current 65,000 asylum seekers per year is a level recorded in France in 1989-90 or 2001-2004, not some unprecedented situation in the country's history, says boring statistics. Ultimately, few receive asylum, and 75-80% of applicants face rejection. On average over the last decade, France granted asylum to only 10-15 thousand foreigners annually.
Interestingly, according to 2014 data, Russian nationals ranked second both in the number of asylum seekers in France and in the number who obtained the sought-after status. 4,200 Russians filed applications, and 1,200 received asylum. The first place in the number of applications was held by nationals of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (5,500 people). In terms of positive responses, Syrians led – 1,500 granted asylum.
As for the exorbitant costs of supporting asylum seekers, everything is complicated and very approximate. The official expenditure line in the French budget is about 600 million euros per year. After filing an asylum application, a foreigner can expect an allowance of 340 euros per month. If he lives in a special reception center for refugees, the allowance ranges from 90 to 700 euros depending on family composition. Asylum seekers are entitled to free medical care, the total cost of which the authorities have not yet been able to calculate.
Apparently, the benefits offered to asylum applicants in France are incomparable, for example, with those in Germany. In the current migration crisis that has engulfed Europe, the vast majority of migrants seek to go to Germany or northern European countries. Reports from French media in Germany have repeatedly noted: asylum seekers who arrive via the Mediterranean to the EU do not want to go to France at all. Here they face overly long processing times and almost guaranteed housing problems. French refugee reception centers have long been overcrowded.
Thus, in early September, the French authorities sent employees of the Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons (OFPRA) to the migrant-packed German city of Munich. President François Hollande promised Chancellor Angela Merkel to take 1,000 asylum applicants for placement in France. During a week of work, the French service officials managed to find only 500 volunteers, promising expedited processing of applications and housing.