EU Nations Received Over 500,000 Asylum Applications in 1st Half of 2023

Experts predict figure will exceed 1 million

Refugees and migrants arrive in a dinghy accompanied by Frontex vessels at the village of Skala Sikaminias, on the Greek island of Lesbos, after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey, on Feb. 28, 2020. Michael Varaklas/AP Photo

Countries in the European Union and its associated countries received more than half a million asylum applications in the first half of 2023, marking a nearly 30 percent increase year on year, according to new data published on Sept. 4 by the European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA).

Data from EUAA show that applications for asylum in the 27-nation bloc and associated countries Switzerland and Norway rose to 519,000 between January to the end of June this year, marking an approximately 28 percent increase compared to the first half of 2022.

The latest figures follow a significant 53 percent increase year over year in 2022. EUAA said it anticipates applications could exceed 1 million by the end of 2023.

Those numbers do not include the approximately 4 million Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion who are currently hosted under temporary protection provisions.

“As a result of the increase, many EU+ countries are under pressure with processing applications and protecting those in need,” the agency said.

“Accordingly, the number of cases awaiting decisions also increased by 34 percent from 2022,” it continued. “Together, these parallel trends pose significant challenges to EU+ asylum and reception systems authorities, so much so that by June 2023, the EUAA was offering operational assistance to 13 Member States.”

According to EUAA, Syrians continued to lodge the most applications for asylum in the EU+ between January and June of this year, continuing a trend that has been seen for several years.

In the first half of 2023, Syrian nationals lodged a total of 67,000 asylum applications, an increase of nearly 50 percent compared to the same period in 2022. That figure also marks the most amount of applications at this time of year since 2016.

Migrants and refugees, who say that they seek to travel onward to northern Europe, sit on railway tracks during a protest at main railway station in Athens, Greece, April 5, 2019. Costas Baltas/Reuters

More Russians Granted Protections

Germany continues to receive the most Syrian applications, processing roughly 62 percent of all applications in the first half of 2023, according to EUAA.

Along with Syrians, Afghans, Venezuelans, Turks, and Colombians lodged the most applications for asylum in the EU+ in the first half of 2023, jointly accounting for 44 percent of all applications, the agency said.

“Venezuelans and Colombians lodged increasingly more applications, together accounting for 13 percent of all applications in the EU+ (36,000 and 34,000),” the agency said.

“This represented a steep increase of 41 percent for Venezuelans and an even steeper increase of 73 percent for Colombians, compared to the first half of 2022,” it said. “Importantly, this trend is unrelated to irregular migration because these citizenships can legally enter the EU’s Schengen area without visas, even journeying on flights from their home countries. These trends are also unique because of their singularity: the overwhelming majority of applications, along with corresponding decisions and pending cases, are highly concentrated in a single Member State – Spain.”

Elsewhere, the numbers of Russians and Iranians being granted protection in Europe has increased in recent years when compared to previous years, EUAA said.

Data show Russians were granted international protection at rates of around 20 percent in 2021 but that it is now at 35 percent, EUAA said. Meanwhile, Iranians are being granted those protections at a rate of around 47 percent compared to 31 percent in 2020.

The first half of this year also saw a notable uptake in asylum applications from the Ivory Coast amid rising political tensions—roughly 9,300 according to the agency—and from the West African nation of Guinea, where nationals filed around 8,700 asylum applications in the EU+.

The latest data come as the continued increase in asylum seekers and other migrants into Europe has placed a significant strain on multiple nations.

German federal police officers talk to a Afghan family after they arrived the main station in Rosenheim, southern Germany, on July 28, 2015. Matthias Schrader/AP Photo

Dutch Prime Minister Resigns Over Asylum Policy

Elsewhere in Belgium, the government last week announced it will no longer provide shelter for single men seeking asylum, stating instead that its overburdened housing capacity should prioritize families, women, and children.

That decision has been widely condemned by human rights organizations.

A month earlier in July, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte resigned as the leader of the country’s ruling party amid disagreements about migration policy.

“It’s no secret that the coalition parties think very differently about asylum policy and today we unfortunately need to draw the conclusion that the differences are unbridgeable,” said Mr. Rutte in a press conference following his resignation. “The fall of a government is never good. But it is sometimes impossible in a coalition country like the Netherlands to come to one agreement.”

While it is no longer in the EU, the UK has also seen a significant increase in asylum applications, with Home Office spending on asylum rising by £1.85 billion ($2.32 billion), from £2.12 billion ($2.66 billion) in 2021/22 to £3.97 billion ($4.98 billion) in 2022/23, something that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has called “unacceptable.”

The country is also facing a more than 175,000 backlog of immigrants waiting for a decision on their case.

In June, the European Union agreed to a common asylum reform package that member states must follow when people seek international protection, including a 20,000 euro ($21,493) fine for nations who refuse to accept refugees.

Bulgaria, Lithuania, Malta, and Slovakia abstained from voting for the policy, while Hungary and Poland objected to the agreement.