Emmanuel Dupuy: "Fewer Azerbaijanis seek asylum in France

Paris. 18 January. REPORT.AZ/ "According to official statistics, the number of Azerbaijanis seeking asylum in France has dropped," President of the Paris-based Institute for European Prospective and Security (IPSE) Emmanuel Dupuy told Western European bureau of Report.

Dupuy said that the decrease in the number of Azerbaijanis who sought refuge in France also has links with changes in Azerbaijan.

According to him, the changes in those countries where refugees are seeking asylum also affects this figure:

"The great efforts made in Azerbaijan for the improvement of living conditions in recent years prompted revision of criteria of refugee admission and their toughening."

He noted that the total number of refugees in France has dropped: "Thus, based on the Geneva Convention, only 120,000 refugees have been granted asylum in France in 2017.

According to him, this issue is closely related to migrant crisis in Europe: “While in 2015 the Mediterranean Sea was crossed by 1.5 million refugees, in 2017 the figure made 100 thousand, however, one thing should be borne in mind that this is the number of refugees who left their homeland in 2017. This figure was 260 million, part of which , ie, 70 million refugees from conflict zones. So, we see that, to a certain extent, the provision of asylum is associated with wars."