In 2017, more than 100,000 migrants applied for asylum with French authorities.
As RFI notes, the updated migration statistics from the Ministry of the Interior confirmed a record number of asylum seekers arriving in France in 2017 – 100,755 people. Over the year, the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons (Ofpra) granted the sought status to 31,964 foreigners. A year earlier, in 2016, France registered 85,726 asylum seekers, and 26,500 migrants received official refugee status.
The French Ministry of the Interior recalls that the first place in the number of applications last year was taken by nationals of Albania, which French authorities consider a "safe" country (the list of safe countries includes those where there are no military conflicts, political repression, persecution on religious or ethnic grounds), and consequently, Albanians' chances of obtaining asylum in France are low. The next places in terms of numbers are occupied by migrants from Afghanistan, Haiti, Sudan, Guinea, and Syria.
The Ofpra agency clarifies that a quarter of those who applied for asylum with French authorities in 2017 are migrants who, under the EU Dublin Agreement, cannot claim refugee status in France. They arrived in the European Union through other countries where they should apply for protection.
The Eurostat agency reports that in 2017, EU countries granted refugee status to 538,000 migrants. Of these, 60% are accounted for by Germany, where 325,400 people received asylum.