More people continue to seek asylum in the EU

Source: Schengen Visa Info

A total of 66,545 first-time asylum applications for international protections were filed by non-EU citizens in the European states in July – 265 more than in the previous months, scoring an increase of 0.4 percent.

According to the European Office for Statistics, Eurostat, the number of asylum applications recorded in the previous year was 44,760, about 49 percent below this year, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.

“In July 2022, there were also 5,860 subsequent applicants (people who reapplied for asylum after a decision had been taken on a previous application), a seven percent decrease compared with June 2022 and a two percent increase compared with July 2021,” Eurostat explains.

The main country of origin for asylum applicants was Syrians, filing a total of 9,010 first-time applications, followed by Afghans (8,150), Venezuelans (3,665), Pakistanis (3,555) and Colombians (3,505).

On the other hand, the number of Ukrainian nationals applying for first-time asylum requests has kept dropping in recent months. These rates stood at 2,370 in February and skyrocketed to 12,890 in March. In the upcoming months, those dropped to 1,510 in April, 1,295 in May, 975 in June and 950 in July. The reduced numbers could be related to people fleeing Ukraine benefiting from temporary protection.

The country to report the highest number of first-time applicants for July was Germany, compromising for 21 percent of all applications. France follows with a total of 10,890 applications or 16 percent of the total, ahead of Austria (10,625, 16 percent), Spain (8,745, 13 percent) and Italy (5,105, eight percent). These five Member States together represented three-quarters (74 percent) of all first-time asylum applications filed in the EU for July.

In July 2022, a total of 3,400 unaccompanied minors applied for asylum for the first time in the Member States, with this rate increase of 60 percent more than in the corresponding time in the previous year (2,130) and about 17 percent more than in June in 2022 when 2,905 applications from this category were filed.

While the main countries of origin for unaccompanied minors who lodged asylum applications in July were Afghanistan (1,475), Syria (735), Somalia (225) and Pakistan (140), while three Member States received the most asylum applications were Austria (1,270), which witnessed an 11 percent increase compared to the previous month, followed by Germany (485) and the Netherlands (450). Both of these countries, Germany and the Netherlands, witnessed an increase of nine percent and 70 percent, respectively.