Brussels, 06/05/2010 (Agence Europe) - In 2009, 229,500 decisions were made on asylum in the EU and 73% of asylum seekers (166,900) were rejected. The European Statistical Office, Eurostat, published these figures on Tuesday 4 May. The status of refugee was only granted to 12% of asylum seekers. Eleven per cent of asylum seekers were granted subsidiary protection and 4% were granted authorisation to stay for humanitarian reasons. These percentages are almost identical to those published for 2008. Last year, most asylum seekers were citizens from Afghanistan (20,400 or 8% of the total number of applicants), Russia (20, 100 or 8%), Somalia (19,100 or 7%), Iraq (18,700 or 7%) and Kosovo (14,200 or 5%).
In 2009, the highest number of applicants was registered in France (47,600 applicants) followed by Germany (31,800), the United Kingdom (30,300), Sweden (24,200), Belgium (21,600), Italy (17,500), the Netherlands (16,100), Greece (15,900) and Austria (15,800). When compared with the population of each member state, the highest rates of applicants registered were recorded in Malta (5,800 applicants per million inhabitants), Cyprus4 (3,300), Sweden (2,600), Belgium (2,000) and Austria (1,900). (B.C./transl.fl)