France has taken in 106,000 refugees for a budget of 600 million euros

France has welcomed around 106,000 Ukrainian refugees since the Russian invasion in February, for an estimated budget of some 600 million euros in 2022, according to a report published Monday by MPs Stella Dupont and Mathieu Lefèvre (Renaissance). In the document, the Macronist parliamentarians regret in passing the absence of “budgeting” of this reception in the finance bill for 2023, even if this expense is “unpredictable”.

Macron’s goal achieved

According to their report, “the number of people welcomed (adults and minors) is estimated at around 106,000, i.e. a contingent close to the objective of 100,000 people set by the President of the Republic on March 15, 2022”.

Questioned by the two deputies, the Ministry of the Interior “estimates the amount of expenditure at 579 million euros” dedicated in 2022 to the reception of Ukrainian refugees within the budgetary mission “immigration, asylum and integration”, indicate -they.

This amount includes in particular “309.2 million euros for accommodation, 242.2 million for the allowance for asylum seekers and 13.8 million for social support”.

Expenses missing from the budget

The two parliamentarians indicate that these 579 million euros “do not sum up the financial effort made by France”, since between 40 and 60 million euros are added to it for other accommodation measures coming under the budget of territorial cohesion. These credits do not include the “compensation” of 150 euros per month “likely to be paid soon to households hosting or having hosted” Ukrainian refugees.

The expenditure of 579 million euros will be “renewed, in whole or in part, in 2023, but the government has chosen not to include the corresponding credits in the finance bill and to favor separate subsequent financing”, specify the co-rapporteurs, who would have preferred a figure to appear in the 2023 draft budget.

“There was an extraordinary mobilization”

Ms. Dupont and Mr. Lefèvre also note that the reception of Ukrainian refugees has changed “citizen accommodation (with volunteer families) in dimension”, with “half of the temporary protected who are not housed in a system supervised by the state”. “There was an extraordinary mobilization. Citizen accommodation is a solution for the future, win-win, a useful tool when it is done through relay associations and professionals, ”said Ms. Dupont to AFP.

Regarding the budget dedicated to immigration, the two deputies call for “vigilance” on “the instability of the workforce” of the French Office for Immigration and Integration (Ofii), which organizes the reception asylum seekers and refugees, noting “289 contracts lasting less than 12 months” concluded in 2021.