16/03/2017 (Agence Europe) – On Thursday 16 March, Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, said that 1.2 million new demands for asylum had been registered in 2016. Syrians, Afghans and Iraqis were the main nationality of asylum seekers. In 2016, 1,204,300 first time asylum seekers applied for international protection in the Member States of the European Union (EU), a number slightly down compared with 2015 (when 1,257,000 first time applicants were registered) but almost double that of 2014 (562,700). Six out of ten applied for asylum in Germany, with 722,300 first time applicants registered in 2016. Germany recorded 60% of all first-time applicants in the EU. It was followed by Italy (121,200, or 10%), France (76,000, or 6%), Greece (49,900, or 4%), Austria (39,900, or 3%) and the United Kingdom (38,300, or 3%) (SP)