Europe has seen some immense increase during the last five years has observed the first time a huge drop in asylum applications last year. Only 461,300 people applied for asylum in all European member states. Most applications were filed by citizens from Syria, Afghanistan, Venezuela, Colombia, and Iraq. Whereas the most positive results of application recognition came for the citizens of Syria, Eritrea, and Yemen.
In 2020 applications for asylum seekers fell down by 31%. Travelling was disturbed throughout the year due to COVID-19. This number is the lowest since 2013.
The news was announced by European Asylum Support Office (EASO) on 18 Feb 2021. In 2019, more than 671,000 asylum requests were filed in the European Union member states (including Norway and Switzerland) but these applications in 2020 were almost 461,300 with a decrease of 31%.
According to the EASO, the main reason for the decline was travel restrictions to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. “The significant reduction reflects the effects of movement restrictions such as the COVID-19 epidemic and related emergency measures,” the EASO said in a statement.
It has cut off or reduced the number of immigration channels, according to AFP. The highest numbers were recorded in January and February. On the other hand, the lowest number of applications was registered in March and June.
The asylum applications success rate remained 32%. This rate was the lowest seen for 2% for Colombians and 3% for Venezuelans whereas the highest asylum applications (rate) that were recognized successfully were from Syria with 84 %, Eritrea with 80%, and Yemen with 75 %.
Pakistanis, Turks, Nigerians, Bangladeshis and Somalis also lodged a significant number of applications, but fewer than in the previous year.
Generally, about every 3rd application was received, roughly the same rate as in 2019. This was especially the case for Afghans, whose average rate was 53% in 2020, up 5% from 2019.
In total figures, most asylum requests were filed by the nationals of following courtiers:
- Syria
- Afghanistan
- Venezuela
- Colombia
- Iraq
The home for refugees in Germany also saw a decrease in asylum applications last year. For the first time, more than 76,000 asylum seekers were recorded in the German Interior Ministry, which is 31.5% less than in 2019.
According to the report, the top nations of origin remained the same as it was in 2019. The EASO told that 4% of the applications received in 2020 were in the names of non-competitive minors, an increase of 1% over the year 2019. A decline in applications is observed to 44% from Nigerians in 2020. Almost all nationalities submitted fewer applications. The analysis shows that only people from Comoros, Belarus, Cuba, and Brazil saw an increase in 2019.
Despite the epidemic, national authorities processing new asylum applications have reached almost the same level as in 2019. For the first time in 2020, about 521,000 decisions were issued. For the first time since 2017, the number of decisions exceeded the number of requests. The report tells that around 412,500 cases were still pending at the end of December 2020, almost 17% of backlog cases were cleared.
EU’s Efforts for Asylum Seekers
The European Parliament and European Council reached an agreement over the budgetary priorities (billions of Euros) of EU asylum, migration, and integration policies over the next seven years (2021-2027). The decision was made on Wednesday 9 December 2020 through a political agreement.
About 36.5% will be directly managed by the EU and dedicated, among other actions, to emergency assistance, resettlement, and humanitarian admission from non-EU countries, and to relocate asylum-seekers and refugees to other EU member states, “as part of solidarity efforts”.15% of these will be spent for strengthening the common asylum policy and 15% for the objective of promoting integration and regular migration.
All EU member countries will be provided funds for each resettled and relocated person. This amounts to €10,000, up from the €7,000 intended by the Council. The member countries will also obtain now about €6,000 for every person they welcome under this mechanism (€8.000 if it is a vulnerable person) as they have not been given these amounts from 2014-2020 (under the humanitarian admission program).