Asylum requests to France down in 2014, Cazeneuve
The number of applications for political asylum to France fell in 2014, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said on Sunday, rejecting the idea that there had been an "explosion" in the number of refugees seeking to live here.
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"In 2014 the number of requests for asylum fell slightly, compared to 2013," Cazeneuve told Le Parisien newspaper without giving figures. "So there's no explosion of the demand for asylum in France, as certain people say."
Recent shipwrecks of craft carrying migrants in the Mediterranean have drawn attention to the desperation of people fleeing war, persecution and poverty in Africa and the Middle East.
Refugees from conflict zones should be treated with "humanity", Cazeneuve said, but economic migrants should be sent back to their country of origin, preferably by the country where they arrive in Europe.
In April the Council of Europe decided to triple the finance for the Frontex border guard system, to 25 million euros in 2015 and 45 million euros in 2016.
Thousands of migrants have been "saved" in the Mediterranean in the last few weeks thanks to the move, Cazeneuve claimed.
The minister described as "absurd" the proposal of quotas of migrants to be received by European Union countries, which has arisen after southern European countries called for northern countries to take a larger share of the immigrants who arrive on their shores.
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