Chapter 1.1 - Migrants, refugees and other beneficiaries of international protection: concepts, the factual background in the EU
1.1.3 Asylum in the EU – some numbers: asylum applications; main countries of origin and main countries of destination
The rise in the number of asylum seekers arriving in the EU has attracted the attention of the public. News on asylum seekers and migrants crossing the Mediterranean in order to reach the EU have been recurrent in newspapers, television, social networks, and so have been news and opinions on EU asylum policies and practices adopted by EU member States. Numbers show that asylum seekers in the EU have, in fact, increased in recent years, in particular due to conflicts in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and the situations in Pakistan, Eritrea and, more recently, in Venezuela. In 2015, the highest number of applications was recorded, when, according to
Eurostat, a total of 1,322,850 people applied for international protection in the EU (28 Member States). This tendency did not only occur in the EU. Worldwide, the number of asylum seekers and refugees has also been generally increasing [
UNHCR statistics]. Although the number of applicants in the EU has not been as high as in 2015, in 2018 there was a total of 664,410 applications (28 Member States) [
Eurostat], in 2019, a total of 744,810 applications (28 Member States) [
Eurostat], and, in 2020, a total of 471,270 asylum applicants (27 Member States) [
Eurostat]. Where do asylum seekers come from? In 2020, the main countries of origin of asylum seekers in the EU were Syria, Afghanistan and Venezuela, followed by Colombia, Iraq, and Pakistan [
Eurostat]. In 2020 (as in 2019), the EU countries with the highest number of applications for international protection were Germany (121,955 asylum applicants), France (93,470) and Spain (88,530), followed by Greece (40,560) and Italy (26,535). This represents a change when compared to 2018, when Germany was followed by France, Greece, Italy and Spain [
Eurostat].