The certificate and documents of a Spanish asylum seeker in the reading room of the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons, Fontenay-sous-Bois, March 24, 2026. LUCAS BARIOULET FOR LE MONDE
The story of 40 years of exile and the largest movement of refugees ever received by France was made public on Monday, March 30, when the Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons (OFPRA) published its "Spanish file" archives online.
Today, this collection is kept in a small, low-ceilinged room lit by neon lights at OFPRA's headquarters in Fontenay-sous-Bois (eastern suburbs of Paris), stored in 121 steel drawers bearing Iberian-sounding surnames: Jimenez, Dolores, Garcia, Martinez.
Next to this cabinet, other files contain information on refugees from Turkey, Hungary, Romania, or from Africa and Latin America. The Spanish file is the largest: It holds more than 185,000 index cards filed alphabetically, handwritten or typewritten, recording the identities of those who fled fascism. The cards list places of birth, addresses in France, civil status, professions, dates of issuance or renewal of refugee cards, as well as what explained their anti-Franco commitment and the protection granted by France. One was a member of the Republican army; another presented a certificate from an anarchist union.
