France

COVID-19 Update:

Cases: 3.686.813

Deaths: 85.608

Recovered: 254.868

​​​​​​​For this week, there is an increase of 150,165 confirmed COVID-19 cases in France. According to deaths, there is an increase of 2215 confirmed COVID-19 cases in France. There are a total of 2,712,800 people vaccinated with the first dose in France.
Economy:
Unemployment insurance accounts are reeling from the recession that has been hitting the country since the start of the Covid-19 epidemic. At the end of 2020, its deficit plunged to 17.4 billion euros, according to figures adopted on Wednesday 24 February by the Unédic office. “Nearly 3 million people” are compensated by the scheme and several million workers “8 or 9 million” at the height of the crisis are covered under short-time working. “All this has a cost”, estimated Mr. Valentie. In 2020, however, unemployment benefit expenditure only accounts for a quarter of the deficit, according to Unédic. What adds considerably to the bill is the financing of partial unemployment (55% of the deficit), one third of which is covered by Unedic and two thirds by the state. To this should be added the reductions in income linked to the crisis: deferrals and exemptions from contributions, a reduction in the
wage bill on which unemployment insurance contributions are based and lower income due to short-time working, exempt from contributions.
Immigration:
Asylum applications in France have fallen by 41%.
In 2020, 81,669 first applications for asylum were made at immigration counters, against 138,420 (-41%) in 2019, while 115,888 applications for all situations (re-examinations, Dublin procedures etc.) were taken into account last year against 177,822 the previous year.
“This is a strong break”, agrees Julien Boucher, Director General of Ofpra, the body in charge of examining applications for refugee status, awarded in about 24% of cases (37% after appeal procedures). “The extent of the drop in asylum applications is an important change, all the more so as we were on a marked upward trend in recent years, and the
beginning of 2020 followed this trend,” he stressed. This drop in France is part of a European trend, after several months of closing the EU’s
external borders: in Germany, the number of asylum applications has also fallen by 30%.
Expulsions from the territory have fallen by half The pandemic has had “significant consequences on both incoming and outgoing (migratory) flows”, also commented the Interior Ministry, noting a halving of expulsions of people in an irregular situation (-51.8% of “forced” removals), an issue “resolutely emphasised” by Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin and his entourage.