Retirement Hopes in France

The French National Assembly passed a new immigration law, a strict law that strengthens rules about asylum.

The bill cuts the deadline for applying for asylum and doubles the time illegal immigrants can be held in prison. An immigrant entering France illegally risks being sentenced to one year in prison.

President Emmanuel Macron's party says the law will speed up the asylum research process. But such a law has been called very tough by political figures in the opposition, but human rights groups.

The bill was passed with 228 votes, 139 against and 24 abstentions.

Human rights groups say cutting asylum application deadlines could have a negative impact, “for the most vulnerable asylum seekers, who will be the most likely to lose chances” 

“Under the mask of providing an effective asylum-seeker system, the bill includes a series of measures reducing the approach of defence” says Bénédicte Jeannerod, head of France's human rights group.

In a report published in January 2018 by the French Centre for the Protection of Refugees and Persons Without States, Albanians ranked first for asylum in France for 2017 with 7630 Albanian asylum seekers left Afghans with 5,987, citizens from Haiti with 4,486, and so on.

To stress is the fact that the number of Albanian citizens who have sought asylum is twice that of Syrians, where only 3,249 of them have submitted documentation to stay in France.

The bill will be debated in the Senate in June, but if this law exceeds asylum hopes in France, they will be less.