The European Asylum Support Office (EASO) confirmed in its annual report, on Tuesday 29 June, that the number of first-time asylum applications lodged in the EU in 2020 fell to an all-time low due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
First instance decisions in Member States and Schengen associated countries were indeed higher than applications, with 534,500 decisions in total and 485,000 asylum applications, down by 32% compared to 2019 and the lowest since 2013.
The Office also notes that 58% of these first instance decisions were negative.
“The 485,000 applications marked a decrease of 32% compared to 2019 (716,000) and 64% compared to the peak in 2015 (1.4 million). However, the reduction in applications is mainly due to reduced mobility and travel, rather than a reduction in the number of people in need of protection”, says EASO.
The Office also notes that, despite the decline in the overall number of applications, some countries have seen an increase. “There have been more arrivals from the West African, Central Mediterranean and Western Balkan routes”. Romania recorded a 138% increase in the number of applications, followed by Bulgaria (+64%).
The report also notes that two-thirds of the applications lodged in 2020 were in three countries: Germany (122,000), France (93,000) and Spain (89,000), but in relation to GDP and population, Cyprus, Greece and Malta remained the countries with the greatest pressure on their asylum systems.
Syrians, Afghans, Venezuelans and Colombians were the main nationalities registered in 2020. The largest increases were for Afghans, but also for Nicaraguans and Belarusians.
Another effect of the pandemic is the drastic drop in the number of resettlements of refugees from third countries to the EU, with a 59% drop in the number of people resettled in the EU compared to 2019, with a total of 9,200 resettlements in 14 countries out of a commitment of 21,200 places, which should, however, be filled by 2021.
Aid for Ceuta
For its part, the European Parliament returned to the recent events in Ceuta, on Monday 28 June, in the Committee on Civil Liberties. The European Commission was invited to take stock of the situation and reiterated its offer to help Spain, including the possibility of activating the emergency funds still available under the AMIF. Of the 10,000 people who arrived in mid-May, most have left, the Commission said, but there are still “2,000 people in Ceuta, including 1,000 to 1,500 minors” for whom solutions must be found. However, the Spanish regions have set up a system for transferring and receiving these young migrants. In 2019 and 2020, 2,000 and 770 people respectively had arrived in the Spanish enclave.
Link to the EASO report: https://bit.ly/36015Am (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)