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France: Asylum and immigration reform codifies stricter conditions

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France
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ECRE
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New legislation (Law n. 2018-778) was published yesterday, outlining France’s latest asylum and immigration reforms. The law amends several articles of the French Code of Entry and the Stay of Foreigners and the Right to Asylum (Ceseda), and although not immediately, it will take effect on a number of aspects of the asylum procedure.

The previous right to protection from removal for one full day will no longer be available to persons refused entry at land borders, putting them at risk of immediate removal. This change has significant consequences as official figures have shown that the majority of asylum claims made at the border are rejected during the border procedure.

The deadline for within which a person can appeal a Dublin transfer decision has been restored from 7 to 15 days.

The national reception system will set out a distribution mechanism across regions, allocating the share of asylum seekers to be accommodated by each region. If a region exceeds its designated capacity, persons can be removed to a different region, with rights to material reception conditions dependent on their compliance with this. Permission for a person to temporarily leave their assigned region will have to be granted by OFII.

People seeking asylum will now be entitled to formal access to the labour market after 6 months, as opposed to the previous waiting period of 9 months, and access to the rights attached to international protection status will be immediate after being granted protection and no longer dependent upon civil registration with OFPRA.

Beneficiaries of subsidiary protection will now be entitled to a multiannual residence permit of up to 4 years, after which they will become are eligible for a 10- year resident card, rather than only being granted one-year residence permits as prior to the reform.

There have also been changes made to family reunification policies, meaning that unaccompanied children who are beneficiaries of international protection may be joined by their parents.