In 2020, the EU recorded a 33% drop in asylum applications compared to the previous year and the number of irregular border crossings was the lowest in six years, said the European Commission on Friday 29 January, upon publishing statistics on the topic.
There has not been a uniform impact, however, with several local communities receiving unexpectedly large numbers of arrivals and the overall number of arrivals continuing to recover after experiencing a sharp drop around April, it added.