24/03/2021 16:41
In 2020, a total of 416 600 first-time asylum applicants applied for international protection in the EU Member States, down by 34% compared with 2019 (631 300) and by 21% compared to the level recorded in 2014 (530 600), before the peaks of 2015 and 2016, according to data on asylum applicants recently published today by Eurostat.
According to Eurostat, the highest number of first-time asylum applicants relative to the population was recorded in Cyprus and the lowest in Hungary.
Compared to the population of each Member State, the highest number of registered first-time applicants in 2020 was recorded in Cyprus (8 448 first-time applicants per million population), ahead of Malta (4 686) and Greece (3 532).
In contrast, the lowest numbers were recorded in Hungary (9 first-time applicants per million population), followed by Estonia (35), Poland (40) and Slovakia (49).
In 2020, in the EU as a whole, there were 931 first-time asylum applicants per million population.
With 102 500 first-time applicants registered in 2020, Germany accounted for one quarter of all first-time applicants in the EU. It was closely followed by Spain (86 400, or 21%) and France (81 800, or 20%), ahead of Greece (37 900, or 9%) and Italy (21 200, or 5%).
These five Member States together accounted for 80% of all first-time applicants in the EU.
Syrians, Afghans, Venezuelans and Colombians lodged the most applications for asylum, together accounting for 40% of all first-applicants in the EU Member States in 2020.
Syrian (63 500 first-time applicants, or 15% of the total number of first-time applicants) was the main citizenship of asylum seekers in the EU Member States, continuing the trend observed since 2013. Over half of the Syrians lodged their application in Germany.
Afghan (44 200, or 11% of the EU total) was the second main citizenship for the third year in a row. Around one quarter of all Afghan applications were lodged in Greece and France each.
Venezuelan citizenship (30 300, 7% of the EU total) ranked third as was the case in 2019. Over 90% of Venezuelans sought asylum in Spain. Venezuelans were closely followed by Colombians (29 100 first-time applicants, 7% of the EU total), also with more than 90% of applications in Spain.