PARIS, May 9: The increasing number of political refugees in France looks to become one of the first major issues to be tackled by the new government of Jean-Pierre Raffarin, only in power since May 7.

According to a just-published study by the governmental agency that oversees refugee flows, the OFPRA (Office Francais pour la Protection des Refugies et Apatrides), last year close to 1,000 persons a week — a total of 47,291 — arrived in France in the hopes of being accorded political refugee status. That number represents an increase of 20 per cent in the past year, more than 100 per cent since 1999.

What is ironic about it all say governmental officials charged with what they say is an incredibly impossible job, is that in spite of the increasingly larger number of requests for asylum, a growing percentage of seekers are being turned down — the rate last year reached 82 per cent. And, this in spite of OFPRA’s hiring last year of an additional 30 interrogators, who were able to deal with more cases than ever.

If you’re from a select group of countries that includes Rwanda, Afghanistan, Iraq or Sri Lanka, your chances of being accorded refugee status are quite good — 81.9 per cent of Rwandans, 69.5 per cent of Afghani, 62.1 per cent of Iraqis, and 43.9 per cent of Sri Lankans were accorded the status of political refugee during the past year.

But, if you come from any of the other countries that account for the lion’s share of asylum-seekers — Congo, Russia, Turkey, Haiti, China, Algeria, Mali and Mauritania — you should know that your chances of getting your case approved are quite minimal.

Then too, whether you get a positive or a negative answer, you’ll have to be quite patient, as a successful application can take as many as four years to make its way through the virtual labyrinth that OFPRA has become.

And although French authorities have long thought that the near impossibility of getting refugee status today would discourage seekers from coming to France, they still arrive in droves, telling interrogators that if need be they’re ready and willing to live clandestinely, even go to jail if necessary, anything but to have to return home to countries where they say their days are effectively numbered.

Ever since, the French government decided in 1991 to no longer automatically provide working papers to asylum-seekers who file an application, those who await an answer from OFPRA have no way of earning their lives, that is, other than working clandestinely, or panhandling on the streets, picking pockets in the Paris subway, or indeed becoming a homeless person.