The European Union Agency for Asylum said in a statement on Wednesday 1 June that in March, the war in Ukraine led to the highest number of asylum applications since 2015-2016 and many more registrations for temporary protection.
Nearly 3 million people fleeing Ukraine have registered for EU temporary protection status so far, including 1.6 million in the month of March, and around 82,900 asylum applications were filed in the EU+ in March, the highest number since the 2015-2016 refugee crisis.
The increase was mainly due to a spike in asylum applications from Ukrainians (14,000) - about 30 times more than before the war - who became the largest group of applicants in March, ahead of Afghans (9,000) and Syrians (7,700).
There has also been a sudden increase in asylum applications from citizens of various countries of the former Soviet Union. As a result, Russian asylum applications (1,400) doubled compared to February, to reach the highest level since 2018.
Even higher increases, between double and ten times, were recorded for citizens of Belarus, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, the agency said.
Applications have also increased significantly for people from several African countries, including Nigeria, Somalia, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia and Mali.
Link to the analysis: https://aeur.eu/f/1w2 (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)