Asylum seekers from Benin, Senegal and Ghana in France will now be able to appeal if their first asylum application is rejected at first instance. And for good reason, the French Council of State has removed these three countries from the list of so-called safe countries of the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons in France (Ofpra).

The deliberation of 5 November 2019 by the Ofpra board of directors is canceled and the republics of Benin, Senegal and Ghana must be removed from this list. The decision of the highest French administrative court is mainly motivated by the protection of LGBT people. It offers their nationals the hope of a more lenient asylum procedure in France. From now on, the nationals of these three countries will therefore no longer be able to be subject to accelerated procedures for their asylum applications, another consequence of the placement of a country on the list. Besides these three countries, Albania, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cape Verde, Georgia, India, Macedonia, Mauritius, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Serbia and Kosovo are on the list. Regarding Benin, the Ofpra had already decided in September to suspend its status as a “safe country of origin” for twelve months, without however removing it from this list. In the case of Ghana and Senegal, the highest French administrative court withdraws them from safe countries because of "legislative provisions penalizing homosexual relations" and the "persistence of behavior, encouraged, favored or simply tolerated by the authorities of these country ". This is to protect LGBT nationals who are victims of discrimination.