More than 500,000 people applied for asylum in the EU, Switzerland and Norway in the first half of 2024. The European Asylum Agency expects the number of applications to exceed the million mark by the end of the year.
The number of asylum applications in the 27 EU member states as well as in Norway and Switzerland rose to more than half a million in the first half of the year. As the EU asylum agency EUAA (European Agency for Asylum) based in Malta announced, from the beginning of January to the end of June 519,000 people sought protection in the area of application of the so-called EU+. That is 28 percent more than in the same period last year.
The agency expects to see more than a million applications for all of 2023 if current trends continue. According to the EUAA, these are the highest half-year figures since 2015 and 2016. At that time, around 1.3 million asylum applications were received in the 29 countries as a result of the civil war in Syria in 2015 and around 1.2 million in the following year. In 2022, the number of applications was just under the million mark at 994,945.
Most asylum seekers come from Syria
According to this, most asylum applications were made in the first half of 2023 by people from Syria, Afghanistan, Venezuela, Turkey and Colombia. They accounted for a total of around 44 percent of the applicants. Germany accounted for the largest proportion of asylum applications (about 30 percent).
According to the asylum agency, many countries are under pressure when processing as a result of the increase in new applications. Accordingly, the backlog of cases awaiting a decision is 34 percent higher than in 2022. In addition, around four million Ukrainians who left their country because of the Russian war of aggression are currently enjoying temporary protection outside the asylum system in the EU.
According to the announcement, some recognition rates have changed significantly. For four years, Turkish nationals have been granted less and less protection; the rate fell from 54 percent in 2019 to currently 28 percent. For Russians, on the other hand, the rate of recognized asylum applications rose from 20 percent in 2021 to 35 percent now, and for Iranians from 31 percent in 2020 to 47 percent now.