According to new statistics published by the European Union Agency for Asylum on 22 February, EU and Schengen associated states received some 966,000 applications for international protection in 2022, an increase of more than 50% compared to 2021 and the highest figure since 2016.
The largest groups of asylum seekers were Syrians (132,000), Afghans (129,000) and Turks (55,000).
This increase is partly linked to “the removal of Covid-19 restrictions and longer-term underlying trends, such as conflict and food insecurity in many regions of origin, leading to strong push factors”. In addition, “secondary movements within the EU and a significant number of applications from legally arrived visa-exempt nationals contributed to this”.
After Syrians, Afghans and Turks, Venezuelans (51,000) and Colombians (43,000) submitted about three times as many applications as in 2021. They were followed by Bangladeshis (34,000) and Georgians (29,000), then by Indian (26,000), Moroccan (22,000), Tunisian (21,000), Egyptian (15,000) or Moldovan (8,300) nationals. Germany was the country with the most applications in 2022.
Link to statistics: https://aeur.eu/f/5fv (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)