About 996,000 asylum applications were registered in 2022 in European countries, the highest number since 2016, according to the annual report of the European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA) published on Tuesday.
These applicants, whose number was revised upwards from the provisional data published in February (966,000), are in addition to the four million Ukrainians who fled the Russian invasion and benefit from special temporary protection status in the EU, the EUAA noted, stressing the “pressure” on national reception systems.
The figures cover the 27 countries of the European Union as well as Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein.
Their publication comes as the EU is negotiating a reform of its migration policy, providing for a system of solidarity between Member States in receiving asylum seekers, and a procedure for accelerated examination at borders of applications with the least chance of success, in order to facilitate the return of migrants to their countries of origin or transit.
The asylum seekers, 71% of whom are men, come mainly from Syria (138,000 applications), Afghanistan (132,000), Turkey (58,000), Venezuela (51,000) and Colombia (43,000).
Some of the applications are lodged by people who arrived in the EU legally: this is the case for Colombians and Venezuelans, who have visa-free access.
In 2015-2016, during the influx of refugees into Europe caused in particular by the stalemate in the conflict in Syria, the number of asylum seekers reached 1.3 million (in 2015) and 1.2 million (in 2016).
In 2022, five countries accounted for 70% of asylum applications: Germany (244,000), France (156,000), Spain (118,000), Austria (109,000) and Italy (84,000). Following at a good distance were Greece, the Netherlands and Belgium, all around 37,000.
Some 39% of asylum applications received a positive response, which corresponds to the highest “recognition rate” since 2017. The nationalities with the highest recognition rates were Syrians (93%), Ukrainians (86%) and Eritreans (84%).
The number of pending decisions stood at 899,000 at the end of 2022.
Some 42,000 applications were submitted by unaccompanied minors, two-thirds of whom were from Afghanistan and Syria.
