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Who is a refugee ?

Statistics
The refugee question is global and affects a growing number of countries. At the end of 2004 the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) estimated that there were 19 millions persons within his competence from which :

• 9,2 million officially recognised refugees
• 5,4 million who had been displaced in their own country
• 1,15 million stateless persons status and others
• 0,84 million asylum seekers

All these people are fleeing political insecurity, persecution, violence, war and famine. The largest number come from Africa and Asia, areas which also accept refugees. The flow of refugees has been increasing since 1985 even though recently there has been a respite.

France has experienced an increase in the demand for asylum since the middle of the 80’s with a peak in 1989 up to 1996. After that the numbers increased to reach 51,000 applications in 2002, 52000 in 2003 and 50500 in 2004.

The recognition rate for those seeking asylum status was 17% in 2004, with wide variations between different nationalities.

Definition

According to the Geneva Convention of 1951 the term refugee applies to anyone “who fears with reason being persecuted because of their religion, their nationality, their belonging to a given racial or ethnic group or because of their political opinions; who is outside the country of which they are nationals; and who because of this fear does not wish to claim the protection of their home country”.

European legislation

Confronted in unequal measure by the flow of refugees because of their different systems for welcoming and protecting refugees, nevertheless the countries of Europe are trying gradually to adopt a common approach to these questions.
Following inter governmental discussions, European co-operation has adopted in 2004 EC laws aiming to harmonise :
• Reception of refugees
• Official status of refugees
• Procedures
    - Temporary protection at the time of huge refugee flows

Given the free movement of people within the European Union, the Dublin Convention has established the mechanisms for determining the country responsible for dealing with an asylum request. This is crucial since a request for asylum can only be dealt with by one European country, and it is a subject that recurs frequently at European summits.

The different kinds of protection in France

There are three kinds of protection in France : the refugee status, the subsidiary protection and the stateless person status.

1. The refugee status

It can be granted on three bases:

Conventional asylum : in accordance with the Geneva international convention on refugees of July 28th 1951. This convention applies to ‘’any person who (...), having good reasons to fear perscutions because of his/her race, religion, nationality,or because he/she belongs to a certain social group or because of his/her political opinions, finds him/herself outside of the country of which he/she has the nationality and who cannot, or who, because of such fear,will not seek protection from this country’’.

Constitutional asylum : in accordance with the preamble of the Constitution of 1946 which concerns ‘’any person persecuted because of its action in favour of freedom''.

Constitutional asylum follows the same procedure rules and offers the same protection as conventional asylum, this only difference is the legal basis. The authorities responsible for examining the application for asylum are the French Office for the protection of refugees and stateless persons (OFPRA) and the ''Commissiondes Recours des Réfugiés'' (CRR).
The OFPRA has two functions :
• To accord the status of refugee to those who request it
• To provide legal and administrative protection for refugees and stateless persons.
The Commission for Refugee Appeals (CRR) is the appeal body

The HCR's mandate : for people who have been recognized as a refugee by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on the basis of articles 6 and 7 of its statute.

2. Subsidiary protection
The advantage of subsidiary protection is granted to ''any person who doesn't fulfil the conditions for the granting of the refugee status (...) and who establishes that he/she is exposed to one of the following serious threats in his/her country :
a) death penalty;
b) torture or inhuman or degrading sentences or treatments;
c) if it's a civilian, a serious, direct and individual threat against his life or person because of general violence resulting from a local or international armed conflict situation”.

In France, the refugee status and the subsidiary protection are recognized by the ''Office Français de Protection des Réfugiés et Apatrides (OFPRA)'' under the control of the ''Commission des Recours des Réfugiés (CRR)''.

Refugee status and subsidiary protection: it is one and the same procedure during which the application for asylum will be examined first within the framework of the refugee status and, if it is rejected, within the framework of a subsidiary protection. After having examined the application for asylum, the OFPRA will tell whether the situation comes under the refugee status, the subsidiary protection or none of both kinds of protection. If it is rejected, the person can appeal before the CRR. The OFPRA and the CRR can refuse to grant the refugee status and the subsidiary protection if they consider that the person can be protected on part of his homeland's territory.

3. The stateless person status

It applies to persons whom ''no other state considers as its national in accordance with its legislation''. This status is different from the two other kinds of protection and only concerns persons who don't have any citizenship. This status doesn't take into account persecutions risks in the homeland. The person must refer his case to the OFPRA directly. It is possible to apply for the stateless person status at the same time as to apply for asylum.