BRUSSELS, 23rd March, 2023 (WAM) – In 2022, 881 200 first-time asylum applicants (non-EU citizens) applied for international protection in EU countries, up by 64% compared with 2021 (537 400), according to data on asylum applicants published by Eurostat today. After a considerable drop in 2020 (417 100), the numbers increased for two consecutive years but still have not reached the peaks registered in 2015 and 2016 (over 1 million applicants in both years) related to the war in Syria.
In 2022, the EU members granted 4 331 200 temporary protection statuses to non-EU citizens fleeing the crisis in Ukraine. On 31st December 2022, 3, 826, 600 non-EU citizens benefitted from temporary protection in the EU.
Almost half (46%) of the first-time asylum applicants in 2022 had Asian citizenship, while 22% had African citizenship, 17% had European citizenship (non-EU) and 14% had North or South American citizenship.
Syria continues to be the main country of citizenship of asylum seekers in the EU since 2013. In 2022, Syrians lodged 131, 970 first-time applications (15% of the total number of first-time applications in the EU).
Afghanistan was the second main country of citizenship for the fourth consecutive year (113 495, or 13% of the EU total).
Applicants from Venezuela and Türkiye each represented almost 6% of the EU total, with 50 050 and 49 720 applications, respectively. Colombia was the fifth main country of citizenship in 2022, totalling 42 420 applicants (5% of the EU total).
Compared with the population of each EU country, the highest number of registered first-time asylum applicants in 2022 was recorded in Cyprus (23 864 first-time applicants per million people), ahead of Austria (11 848) and Luxembourg (3 711).
In contrast, the lowest numbers were recorded in Hungary (5 first-time applicants per million people), followed by Slovakia (92) and Czechia (127).
In 2022, in the EU as a whole, there were 1 973 first-time asylum applicants per million people.
With 217 735 first-time asylum applicants registered in 2022, Germany continued to be the EU country with the highest number of applicants, accounting for one-quarter of all first-time applicants in the EU (25%). It was followed by France (137 510, or 16%) and Spain (116 135, or 13%), ahead of Austria (106 380, or 12%) and Italy (77 200, or 9%). These five EU members together accounted for three-quarters (75%) of all first-time asylum applicants in the EU.