Eurostat statistics on the third quarter of 2015 (from July to September 2015) were published last week by the European Commission. They are related to ‘First time asylum applicant/seeker’, persons having submitted an application for international protection or having been included in such application as a family member for the first time. Applications submitted by persons who are subsequently found to be a subject of a Dublin procedure are included in the statistics on first time asylum applicants if such persons are also a subject of first asylum application.

This excludes repeat applicants, persons applying for asylum more than once in one country. Therefore, these data represent accurately the number of persons applying for international protection in the EU Member States.

First time asylum applicants registered in the EU Member States. Photo credits: ec.europa.eu

Statistics show an increase of application if compared with the previous quarter, as the number of applicants almost doubled, reaching the number of 413,800. The trend that sees an increase of applications during summer months has been typical in the last years. However, it has never reached such a high number. The number of first time applicants increased by more than 150% compared to 2014.

First time asylum seekers in the EU Member States by country of citizenship. Photo credits: ec.europa.eu

Syrians, Afghans and Iraqis are the three main citizenships of first time asylum applicants and they represent more than a half of the total number. 1 out of 3 applicants in this quarter was a Syrian citizen. Almost 2/3 of them requested protection in Germany or Hungary.  Nearly half of the Afghans applied in Hungary. Iraqis make the most substantial relative increase compared to the same period in 2014. More than a quarter of them applied in Finland.

With respect to destination countries, Germany and Hungary make the two EU Member States that received the largest number of asylum applications, 26% each of the total number. They are followed by Sweden (10%), Italy (7%) and Austria (7%). It is also interesting to notice that in some countries the number of applications increased drastically, namely in Finland (+842%), Hungary (+231%), Sweden (+191%), Belgium (+191%), Luxembourg (+154%).

Syrians are the group with the highest rate of recognition of protection, with a percentage of 98% of positive decisions. They are followed by Eritreans (87%), Iraqis (88%) and Afghanis (70%). Even if Albanians are the second group in terms of decisions issued, their requests have received only the 1% of recognition. Kosovans’ requests have also a very low recognition rate (4%, meaning 200).