September 29, 2002	Sunday	Rajab 21, 1423

PARIS, Sept 28: With 80,000 requests for refugee status received last year alone — and only one in eight accepted by French immigration authorities — Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin has told the French government that the time has come to do something about a problem that has grown out of hand and is becoming a drain on the French economy.

Mr de Villepin has decided to introduce a new plan that he says should discourage immigration to France and give authorities the means to expel illegal aliens.

As matters now stand, only 12 percent of applications are eventually accepted, during a procedure that takes on an average of two years.

Mr de Villepin has decided to introduce his plan — which is to take the form of a law to be shortly introduced before Parliament — in part because the cost of offering refugee status in France has grown tremendously in recent years.

The minister has let it be known that last year alone it cost France 200 million dollars to pay the monthly stipend of 280 dollars offered for one year to any person who enters France with an intention of filing an application for refugee status.