PARIS, Sept 26: 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 average two years, which means that those persons whose applications are turned down usually disappear from sight.