Europe: Over A Million Asylum Applications To Be Filed In 2023

The number of asylum applications in the countries of the European Union, as well as in Switzerland and Norway, could exceed one million by the end of 2023.

This was reported by the European Union Asylum Agency (EUAA) that explains how EU member states received 519,000 asylum applications in the first 6 months of the year alone, which is up 28% from the first half of 2022, when a 53% increase was already registered compared to 2021. This is the worst semester since 2015-2016 characterized by the influx of refugees into Europe due to the conflict in Syria: 1.2 million applications were submitted in 2015 and 1.3 million in 2016. The numbers plummeted in 2017 after the signing of the agreement between the EU and Turkey to reduce illegal border crossings; these numbers then remained low also during the Covid pandemic, in 2020 and 2021, and again rose significantly in 2022 (+53%) with 994,945 requests.

The majority of asylum seekers come from Syria, Afghanistan, Venezuela, Turkey, and Colombia: nationals of these countries make up 44% of the total number of applications. The fastest growth is in requests from Côte d’Ivoire +50% (9300) and Guinea +60% (8700). The EUAA warns that the institutions of several European countries are “under pressure” as they have already taken in 4 million Ukrainian refugees enjoying a special protection status.