On 17 June, the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), published an article on the distribution of asylum seekers across the European Union, based on Eurostat statistics. It outlines the total amount of applications, the main countries of origin and destination, but also the recognition rate and the number of relocated asylum seekers within the EU.
Germany received 441,800 of applications in 2015, out of a total of 1.2 million, making them the biggest receiving State. Hungary and Sweden received over 150,000 asylum applications respectively. CEPS also highlighted the differences in countries of origin between the EU Member States, stressing that asylum seekers in 2015 originated from 147 different countries. In the EU as a whole, the top four countries of asylum applicants were Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran.
CEPS also points to the fact that Syrians had a recognition rate of 98%, followed by Eritreans at 93% and Iraqis at 80%. In general, of all asylum applications made in the fourth quarter of 2015, over 50% of applicants were granted international protection, proving that many fulfil the refugee definition or are persons entitled to subsidiary protection.
The article also highlighted that by mid-May of this year, only 1,500 relocations were successfully completed. This illustrates just how difficult it will be to relocate 160,000 people from Italy and Greece to other Member States.
This article appeared in the ECRE Weekly Bulletin of 24 June 2016. You can subscribe to the Weekly Bulletin here.