Asylum in the EU27

Saopštenje EUROSTAT-a

The number of asylum applicants registered in the EU27 rose to more than 330 000 in 2012

In 2012, there were 332 000 asylum applicants1 registered in the EU27. It is estimated that around 90% of these were new applicants and around 10% were repeat applicants2. In 2011, there were 302 000 asylum applicants.

While Afghanistan (8% of the total number of applicants) remained in 2012 the first main country of citizenship3 of these applicants, Syria (7%) became the second just ahead of Russia (7%), Pakistan (6%) and Serbia (6%).

These data4 on asylum applicants in the EU27 are issued by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.

Germany, France, Sweden, the United Kingdom and Belgium register 70% of all applicants

In 2012, the highest number of applicants was registered in Germany (77 500 applicants, or 23% of total applicants), followed by France (60 600, or 18%), Sweden (43 900, or 13%), the United Kingdom (28 200, or 8%) and Belgium (28 100, or 8%). These five Member States accounted for more than 70% of all applicants registered in the EU27 in 2012.

Compared with the population of each Member State, thehighest rates of applicants registered were recorded in Malta (5 000 applicantsper million inhabitants), Sweden (4 600), Luxembourg (3 900), Belgium (2 500) and Austria (2 100), and the lowest in Portugal (30), Estonia and Spain (both 55) and the Czech Republic (70).

In some Member States, a large proportion of the applicants came from a single country. The Member States with the highest concentrations were Malta (60% of the applicants came from Somalia), Poland (57% from Russia), Latvia (51% from Georgia), Lithuania (48% from Georgia), Estonia (45% from Georgia) and Hungary (41% from Afghanistan).

More than a quarter of first instance decisions were positive

In 2012 in the EU273, 73% of first instance decisions5 made on asylum applications were rejections, while 14% of applicants were granted refugee status, 10% subsidiary protection and 2% authorisation to stay for humanitarian reasons. It should be noted that first instance decisions made in 2012 may refer to applications registered in previous years.

If the proportion of positive decisions varies considerably among Member States, it should be kept in mind that the country of origin of applicants also differs greatly between Member States.