Last year France received more than one hundred thousand requests for refugee status
According to the bill, the time for processing asylum requests will be reduced from 11 months to six months, the procedure for forced deportation of those who have been denied refugee status is simplified, the maximum period of detention in administrative detention centers is increased from 45 to 90 days, and liability for those helping illegal migrants is eased.
According to French Interior Minister Gérard Collomb, the new law should limit "mass migration," but at the same time guarantee the right to asylum, which is "sacred" in France. "We cannot take in all the world's poor," President Emmanuel Macron said earlier, commenting on the draft immigration law.
As reported by RFI, 228 deputies voted for the law, 139 against, and 24 parliamentarians abstained.
The law was criticized by both the right and left parliamentary opposition. While the right-wing Republicans and the far-right National Front considered the draft law too lenient, left-wing factions in parliament, on the contrary, called it "inhumane." The French branch of Amnesty International characterized the law being passed as "dangerous."
According to the results of 2017, the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons received more than one hundred thousand new requests for refugee status. However, according to the head of the agency, Pascal Brice, no particularly massive influx of asylum seekers was recorded in France in 2017.