legal and social conditions for asylum seekers and refugees in ...

The Prefecture also gives the form produced by the OFPRA ("Office français de protection des
réfugiés et apatrides” – French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons, the
first instance asylum determination body), which must be completed and returned within one
month. Upon receipt of the form, the OFPRA issues a certificate confirming registration of the
application. The applicant must then return to the Prefecture with the certificate, whereupon
he/she will be issued with a three-month provisional residence permit, renewable every three
months until a final decision has been reached on his/her asylum application.
Accelerated procedure for in-country applicants (“priority procedure”)
A so-called “priority procedure”, which is regulated by Section 10 of the Asylum Act, applies to incountry
applicants. It provides for the four following situations where provisional admission is not
automatically granted by the prefecture and where the procedure differs from the normal
determination procedure:
1. another state is responsible for the examination of the claim for asylum under the Dublin
Convention or under any similar agreements;
2. Article 1C5 of the Geneva Convention (cessation clause) has been applied to the country of
origin of the asylum seeker. The cessation clause applies to the following countries: Romania,
Bulgaria, Argentina, Benin, Cap Verde, Chile, Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia,
and Uruguay;
3. the asylum seeker represents a threat to the public order;
4. the asylum application is considered by the Prefecture as abusive, fraudulent or lodged in the
intention of postponing the implementation of a removal order;
In case no. 1, where the Dublin Convention applies, the asylum seeker has no access to the
normal determination procedure (see “The Dublin Convention” above).
In cases nos. 2, 3 and 4, the asylum seeker is allowed to lodge an application with the OFPRA,
which then processes it in an accelerated procedure. Most of the time, a decision is taken only on
the written application sent by fax to the OFPRA by the Prefecture and without interview.
Asylum seekers are not granted a provisional residence permit while the OFPRA is considering
their claim and they maybe detained until the decision is taken (see under “Detention” below).
There is no time limit for the OFPRA to make a decision on the application, but if the applicant is
detained and if no decision has been made within 12 days, he/she must be released. In such
case, he/she will remain without any document pending the outcome of the procedure.
A negative decision by the OFPRA may be appealed to the Appeal Board for Refugees but
without suspensive effect.
Even when the OFPRA decides to transfer the case to the normal determination procedure, the
applicant remains without residence permit and is not granted any accommodation or social rights
until the OFPRA has made its decision.
The number of cases processed under the “priority procedure” was 2,225 in 1998 compared to
1,080 in 1997. Romanian and Bulgarian asylum seekers represented 45% of the cases in 1998.
Aliens who have applied for territorial asylum may also be processed under an accelerated
procedure, called “emergency procedure”, which is regulated by the circular of 25 June 1998. The
“emergency procedure”, which criteria are close to those of the “priority procedure”, applies when
the application is considered by the prefecture as abusive, fraudulent or lodged in the intention of
postponing the implementation of a removal order, or when the asylum seeker represents a threat
to the public order.
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France