The Council of State as the highest administrative body in France annulled the decision of the Administrative Council of the Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons (OFPRA) which qualifies Kosovo and Albania as countries of safe origin.

On March 18, 2011, OFPRA listed Albania and Kosovo as the countries in which the principles of freedom, democracy, rule of law, human rights and essential freedoms are respected, the French asylum posted on its website.

The Council of State annulled the decision on Monday at the request by the organisation and the Refugee Forum, the release states.

Each year, France offers protection to a considerable number of refugees from Kosovo and Albania, whereby it recognises that they are in jeopardy of banishment or similar dangers there, the two organisations recalled and specified that according to the 2010 data, France provided protection to 785 people from Kosovo and 56 more from Albania.

The associations recalled that the assessment of the situation in a country should not depend on diplomatic decisions or take into account the attempted control of asylum applicants, the release states.

The list of countries of safe origin comprise Armenia, Bangladesh, Benin, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Cape Verde, Croatia, Ghana, Mauritius, India, Mali, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Senegal, Serbia, Tanzania and Ukraine.