2013 Annual Report on the Situation of Asylum in the European Union reveals 435,760 persons applied for international protection in the EU in 2013
The European Asylum Support Office (EASO) has today released this year's annual report on the situation of asylum in the European Union (EU).
You can read the 126-page report here.
The 2013 Annual Report on the Situation of Asylum in the European Union aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the number and nature of applications for international protection made in the EU and how they were processed by EU Member States, in order to indicate important developments at both EU and national level, and to describe how each of the key aspects of the Common European Asylum System works.
EASO says that 435,760 persons applied for international protection in the European Union in 2013 - the highest number of applications for international protection since the beginning of EU data collection in 2008. This represents an increase of 30 per cent compared to 2012.
According to EASO, the highest numbers of asylum applicants were recorded for citizens of Syria, the Russian Federation (the vast majority from the Northern Caucasus region) and the Western Balkan countries (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo, Montenegro and Serbia)
The main EU receiving Member States were Germany, France, Sweden, the UK and Italy. The report notes that the gap between the first and the second receiving country increased very significantly. In 2013, Germany reported 126,705 applicants, or almost twice as many as France, with 66,265 applicants. EASO says this major jump can be explained by the fact that Germany was the first or second destination country for asylum applicants from the Western Balkans, Syria and the Russian Federation.
The overall recognition rate at first instance in the EU (including humanitarian protection) stood at 34.4 per cent, with refugee status being granted to 49,710 persons, subsidiary protection to 45,535 persons and humanitarian protection to 17,665 persons. The highest recognition rates were noted for Syrians, Eritreans and stateless persons.
EASO adds that at the end of 2013, more than 352,000 persons were awaiting a decision on their asylum application in the EU, an increase of 30 per cent compared to the previous year.