On 10 September, the European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA) published its mid-year report on the latest European asylum trends. The report is based on data collected January-June 2026 in EU+ countries (EU member states plus Norway and Switzerland).
A number of key observations are set out below:
- EU+ countries received approximately 332,000 applications for international protection. This represented a 17% decrease compared with the same period in 2025 and the lowest number recorded since 2019.
- The main countries of origin of applicants were Afghanistan, Venezuela and Bangladesh.
- France received the highest number of applications (69,000) followed by Italy (66,000), Spain (55,000) and Germany (54,000).
- Greece recorded the most applications per capita (2,254) followed by Cyprus (1,732) and Ireland (1,132).
- The average EU+ recognition rate was 31% at first instance. This represented a slight increase from the previous year (29%).
- There were approximately 770,000 pending cases at the end of June 2026. This represented an 8% decrease from the previous year.
The publication of the EUAA report was covered by several EU-focused media organisations:
- EUobserver: EU asylum claims drop to lowest level in five years, but many still lost at sea (10 September)
- Euronews: Asylum requests in Europe drop to five-year low in first half of 2026 (10 September)
- POLITICO: Asylum applications plummet across EU as governments push for deportation hubs (9 September)
ECRE continues to urge caution in the use of asylum statistics. In July, it published an updated factsheet which illustrated how the careless use of statistics can distort the real protection needs in Europe.
The EUU report is available here and the ECRE factsheet is available here.