Asylum in the EU28 Large increase to almost 435 000 asylum applicants registered in the EU28 in 2013 Largest group from Syria

STAT/14/46

24 March 2014

Asylum in the EU28

Large increase to almost 435 000 asylum applicants registered in the EU28 in 2013

Largest group from Syria

In 2013, 435 000 asylum applicants1 were registered in the EU28. It is estimated that around 90% of these were new applicants and around 10% were repeat applicants2. In 2012, there were 335 000 asylum applicants.

* EU refers to EU27 for the years 2008 to 2012 and to EU28 for 2013.

These data3 on asylum applicants in the EU28 are published in a report4 issued by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.

Germany, France, Sweden, the United Kingdom and Italy registered 70% of all applicants

In 2013, the highest number of applicants was registered in Germany (127 000 applicants, or 29% of total applicants), followed by France (65 000, or 15%), Sweden (54 000, or 13%), the United Kingdom (30 000, or 7%) and Italy (28 000, or 6%). These five Member States accounted for 70% of all applicants registered in the EU28 in 2013.

Compared with the population of each Member State, the highest rates of applicants registered were recorded in Sweden (5 700 applicants per million inhabitants), Malta (5 300), Austria (2 100), Luxembourg (2 000), Hungary and Belgium (both 1 900). Rates below 100 applicants per million inhabitants were observed in seven Member States: Portugal (50), the Czech Republic (65), Estonia (70), Romania (75), Slovakia (80), Latvia and Spain (both 95). In 2013, there were 860 asylum applicants per million inhabitants in the EU28.

Syrians and Russians accounted for nearly a quarter of all asylum seekers

Syria (50 000 asylum applicants, or 12% of the total number of applicants) became in 2013 the first main country of citizenship of these applicants, ahead of Russia (41 000, or 10%), Afghanistan (26 000, or 6%), Serbia (22 000, or 5%), Pakistan (21 000, or 5%) and Kosovo (20 000, or 5%).

Top citizenships of asylum seekers in the EU in 2013, compared with 2008

* Kosovo under UN Security Council Resolution 1244. 2009 data instead of 2008.

In some Member States, a large proportion of the applicants came from a single country. The Member States with the highest concentrations were Poland (84% of the applicants came from Russia), Latvia (76% from Georgia), Romania (68% from Syria) and Bulgaria (63% from Syria).

More than a third of first instance decisions were positive

In 2013 in the EU28, 65% of first instance decisions5 made on asylum applications were rejections, while 15% of applicants were granted refugee status, 14% subsidiary protection and 5% authorisation to stay for humanitarian reasons. It should be noted that first instance decisions made in 2013 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.

Asylum applicants, 2013

Applicants

Citizenships of main groups of asylum applicants

#

Per million inh.

First group

#

%

Second group

#

%

Third group

#

%

EU28

434 160

860

Syria

50 470

12

Russia

41 270

10

Afghanistan

26 290

6

Belgium

21 030

1 885

Russia

2 150

10

Afghanistan

1 675

8

Guinea

1 610

8

Bulgaria

7 145

980

Syria

4 510

63

Stateless

565

8

Algeria

435

6

Czech Republic

695

65

Ukraine

145

21

Syria

70

10

Russia

50

7

Denmark

7 170

1 280

Syria

1 685

23

Russia

965

13

Somalia

920

13

Germany

126 705

1 575

Serbia

18 000

14

Russia

15 475

12

Syria

12 855

10

Estonia

95

70

Vietnam

25

27

Syria

15

18

Russia

15

15

Ireland

920

200

Nigeria

130

14

Pakistan

95

10

Zimbabwe

70

8

Greece

8 225

745

Pakistan

1 360

17

Afghanistan

1 225

15

Bangladesh

730

9

Spain

4 485

95

Mali

1 470

33

Syria

725

16

Algeria

350

8

France

64 760

985

Kosovo*

5 505

8

Dem. Rep. of the Congo

5 325

8

Albania

5 045

8

Croatia

1 075

250

Syria

195

18

Afghanistan

185

17

Somalia

135

13

Italy

27 930

470

Nigeria

3 580

13

Pakistan

3 310

12

Somalia

2 885

10

Cyprus

1 255

1 450

Syria

570

45

Egypt

145

12

Bangladesh

105

8

Latvia

195

95

Georgia

145

76

Syria

15

8

Russia

5

3

Lithuania

400

135

Georgia

120

30

Afghanistan

85

22

Russia

75

19

Luxembourg

1 070

1 990

Kosovo*

160

15

Bosnia and Herzegovina

145

14

Montenegro

115

11

Hungary

18 895

1 905

Kosovo*

6 210

33

Pakistan

3 080

16

Afghanistan

2 330

12

Malta

2 245

5 330

Somalia

1 015

45

Eritrea

475

21

Syria

250

11

Netherlands

17 160

1 025

Somalia

3 270

19

Syria

2 705

16

Iraq

1 420

8

Austria

17 500

2 070

Russia

2 850

16

Afghanistan

2 590

15

Syria

2 005

11

Poland

15 150

395

Russia

12 760

84

Georgia

1 235

8

Syria

255

2

Portugal

500

50

Syria

145

29

Guinea

80

16

Nigeria

35

7

Romania

1 495

75

Syria

1 010

68

Iraq

45

3

Pakistan

40

3

Slovenia

270

130

Syria

60

23

Kosovo*

35

13

Algeria

20

8

Slovakia

440

80

Afghanistan

110

25

Somalia

55

13

Georgia

35

8

Finland

3 210

590

Iraq

820

25

Russia

245

8

Somalia

215

7

Sweden

54 270

5 680

Syria

16 540

30

Stateless

6 885

13

Eritrea

4 880

9

United Kingdom

29 875

465

Pakistan

4 645

16

Iran

3 055

10

Sri Lanka

2 280

8

Iceland

125

390

Albania

40

31

Russia

10

7

Syria

5

6

Liechtenstein

55

1 495

Russia

10

17

Kosovo*

5

11

Somalia

5

7

Norway

11 930

2 360

Eritrea

3 250

27

Somalia

1 695

14

Syria

865

7

Switzerland

21 305

2 650

Eritrea

2 560

12

Syria

1 900

9

Nigeria

1 765

8

* Kosovo under UN Security Council Resolution 1244

Data are rounded to the nearest 5.

First instance decisions, 2013

Total decisions

Positive decisions

Of which:

Rejections

Refugee status

Subsidiary protection

Humanitarian reasons

EU28

326 310

112 730

49 510

45 540

17 685

213 580

Belgium

19 805

6 280

3 910

2 370

-

13 525

Bulgaria

2 810

2 460

180

2 280

-

355

Czech Republic

900

345

90

240

15

555

Denmark

6 965

2 810

1 600

1 130

80

4 155

Germany

76 165

20 125

10 910

7 005

2 205

56 040

Estonia

55

10

5

0

-

45

Ireland

840

150

130

20

-

690

Greece

13 080

500

255

175

70

12 580

Spain

2 365

535

205

325

5

1 835

France

61 455

10 470

8 925

1 545

-

50 985

Croatia

185

25

5

15

-

165

Italy

25 245

16 185

3 110

5 550

7 525

9 060

Cyprus

800

165

35

125

10

635

Latvia

95

25

5

20

-

65

Lithuania

175

55

15

40

-

120

Luxembourg

1 245

130

110

25

-

1 115

Hungary

4 540

360

175

185

5

4 180

Malta

1 905

1 605

45

1 445

115

300

Netherlands

15 590

9 545

1 235

3 460

4 850

6 045

Austria

16 610

4 920

3 160

1 760

-

11 690

Poland

2 820

745

210

145

390

2 075

Portugal

305

135

20

115

-

170

Romania

1 435

915

385

530

5

515

Slovenia

195

35

25

15

-

160

Slovakia

190

70

5

30

35

125

Finland

3 185

1 620

540

785

295

1 565

Sweden

45 005

24 015

6 750

16 145

1 120

20 990

United Kingdom

22 340

8 505

7 475

70

960

13 840

Iceland

130

10

5

5

0

120

Liechtenstein

45

5

0

5

0

35

Norway

11 785

5 770

4 490

995

280

6 015

Switzerland

16 595

6 390

3 115

870

2 405

10 205

- Not applicable

Data are rounded to the nearest 5.

Asylum applicant means a person having submitted an application for international protection or having been included in such application as a family member during the reference period. For reasons of simplicity, the term "applicant" has been used in this Release, because the data counts individuals rather than applications, which include in some cases several persons.

'Application for international protection' means an application for international protection as defined in Art. 2(g) of Council Directive 2004/83/EC, i.e. including requests for refugee status or for subsidiary protection status, irrespective of whether the application was lodged on arrival at border, or from inside the country, and irrespective of whether the person entered the territory legally (e.g. as a tourist) or illegally.

Within the same month every person being a subject of asylum application is counted only once, therefore repeat applications are not recorded if the first application has been lodged in the same month. However, such a repeat application will be recorded if lodged in a different reference month. It means that the annual figures, which are based on an aggregation of monthly data, may overestimate the number of persons applying for international protection.

This proportion has been estimated on the basis of the share of repeat applicants available in 24 of the 28 Member States (Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Croatia, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Finland, Sweden and the United Kingdom). These Member States covered 90% of all asylum applicants registered in the EU28 in 2013.

The data used for this publication are provided to Eurostat by the Ministries of Interior, Justice or immigration agencies of the Member States. Apart from statistics on new asylum applicants, these data are supplied by Member States according to the provisions of Article 4 of the Regulation (EC) 862/2007 of 11 July 2007 on Community statistics on migration and international protection.

For further information, please see the publication “Asylum applicants and first instance decisions on asylum applications: 2013” on the Eurostat web site:

http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/product_details/publication?p_product_code=KS-QA-14-003

First instance decision means a decision made in response to an asylum application at the first instance level of the asylum procedure. The number of asylum applicants and the number of first instance decisions during the same reference period differs. This is due to the time lag between the date of the asylum application and the date of the decision on the asylum application. The duration of this time lag may vary considerably depending on the national asylum procedure and the administrative workload. An asylum application lodged in one reference period may therefore result in a decision in a later period, while some asylum decisions reported for that period may relate to applications lodged in previous reference periods.

Rejected applicant means a person covered by first instance decision rejecting application for international protection, such as, inter alia, decisions considering applications as inadmissible or as unfounded and decisions under priority and accelerated procedures, taken by administrative or judicial bodies during the reference period. Rejected applicants have the possibility to appeal against refusal. The outcomes of the appeals may overturn the results of the first instance decisions and may vary greatly between countries.

Person granted refugee status at first instance means a person covered by first instance decision granting refugee status, taken by administrative or judicial bodies during the reference period. Refugee status means status as defined in Art.2(d) of Directive 2004/83/EC within the meaning of Art.1 of the Geneva Convention relating to the Status of Refugees of 28 July 1951, as amended by the New York Protocol of 31 January 1967. According to the Art.2(c) of that Directive refugee means a third country national who, owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership of a particular social group, is outside the country of nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself or herself of the protection of that country, or a stateless person, who, being outside of the country of former habitual residence for the same reasons as mentioned above, is unable or, owing to such fear, unwilling to return to it.

Person granted subsidiary protection status at first instance means a person covered by first instance decision granting subsidiary protection status, taken by administrative or judicial bodies during the reference period. Subsidiary protection status means status as defined in Art.2(f) of Directive 2004/83/EC. According to the Art.2(e) of that Directive person eligible for subsidiary protection means a third country national or a stateless person who does not qualify as a refugee but in respect of whom substantial grounds have been shown for believing that the person concerned, if returned to his or her country of origin, or in the case of a stateless person, to his or her country of former habitual residence, would face a real risk of suffering serious harm and is unable, or, owing to such risk, unwilling to avail himself or herself of the protection of that country.

Person granted authorisation to stay for humanitarian reasons at first instance means a person covered by other first instance decision granting authorisation to stay for humanitarian reasons under national law concerning international protection, taken by administrative or judicial bodies during the reference period. It includes persons who are not eligible for international protection as currently defined in the first stage legal instruments, but are nonetheless protected against removal under the obligations that are imposed on all Member States by international refugee or human rights instruments or on the basis of principles flowing from such instruments. Examples of such categories include persons who are not removable on ill health grounds and unaccompanied minors.

Issued by: Eurostat Press Office

Vincent BOURGEAIS

Tel: +352-4301-33 444

[email protected]

Eurostat News Releases on the internet: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat

For further information on the data:

Piotr JUCHNO

Tel: +352-4301-36 240

[email protected]

Alexandros BITOULAS

Tel: +352-4301-37 608

[email protected]

بيان صحفي من مكتب الإحصاء الأوروبي يعلن أن السوريين أكبر مجموعة طالبي لجوء في الاتحاد الأوروبي عام 2013 بنحو 50 ألف طلب.