First asylum data 2023 [Provisional figures]

In 2023*, nearly 142,500 applications for international protection were submitted to Ofpra, all procedures combined. These included some 123,400 first applications for asylum and almost 470 applications for stateless status.

With an increase of 8.6% compared with 2022, demand is back in line with the trend observed before the health crisis linked to the Covid-19 pandemic, which had a major impact on population movements.

For the sixth year running, Afghanistan remained the leading country of origin for asylum seekers, with more than 17,500 first applications, followed by Bangladesh (8,600), Turkey (8,500), the Democratic Republic of Congo (8,000) and the Republic of Guinea (7,000).

Overseas, French Guiana is the territory that has seen the biggest increase, with almost 5,200 first applications submitted (up +102%), with Haitians (28% of first applications), Syrians (21%) and Afghans (19%) making up the majority. In Mayotte, on the other hand, the level of demand fell significantly (some 2,650 first applications, or -26%).

Over the past year, the Office was deployed outside its own premises on 47 missions, to hear asylum seekers in mainland France (23 missions in Lille, Lyon, Metz and Strasbourg) and overseas (17 in the French departments of America and 7 in Mayotte). Similarly, with 33 missions abroad, it once again implemented France's commitments to relocate and resettle refugees received in European Union Member States (10 missions) or in third countries in the Middle East and Africa (23 missions).

The Office maintained a high level of activity, issuing more than 136,700 decisions in 2023. Its protection rate increased again, in line with the composition of asylum applications and the deterioration of the situation in some asylum seekers' countries of origin, reaching almost 33% (+4 points compared with 2022).

The average annual processing time has continued to fall, to 4.2 months (5.2 months in 2022).

Finally, thanks in particular to the reinforcement of the Office's dedicated resources, the activity of drawing up civil status records has risen sharply, with almost 64,900 civil status records reconstituted in 2023 compared with 43,550 in 2022 (+49%).

*These figures are provisional. They include minors. Those published in Ofpra's activity report will be definitive.