One million asylum applications in EU

According to the European Union Asylum Agency (EUAA), around 966,000 asylum applications (including subsequent applications) were submitted in the European Union in 2022. This is around 50 percent more than in the previous year.

The figure does not include refugees from Ukraine who received “temporary protection” in the European Union.

Most asylum applicants came from Syria (around 132,000), Afghanistan (129,000), Turkey (55,000), Venezuela (55,000) and Colombia (43,000).

Most applications for asylum (including subsequent applications) were filed in the following countries from January to November 2022:

– Germany: around 215,000 applications
– France: 141,000
– Spain: 109,000
– Austria: 102,000
– Italy: 76,000

In 2022, around 632,000 decisions were made on asylum applications. Of these, around 40 per cent were positive. Syrians (94 per cent), Belarusians (88 per cent) and Ukrainians (86 per cent) respectively had the best chances of receiving a positive asylum decision, followed by people from Eritrea, Yemen (84 per cent each) and Mali (70 per cent).

Around 950,000 asylum applications were still being processed as of 30 November 2022.

According to the EUAA, around 648,000 people applied for asylum in the European Union in 2021 – around a third more than in the previous year. Most of them came from Syria (around 117,000 people), Afghanistan (around 102,000) and Iraq (30,000).Source

The asylum authorities of the Schengen states took about 535,000 decisions in asylum procedures during this period. About 34 per cent of them were positive. At the end of December 2021, a legally binding decision was still pending on about 767,000 applications – of which about 267,000 were in Germany.

Felix Dappah

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