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Eurostat: Asylum in the EU Member States - Number of first time asylum seekers up to almost 360 000 in the third quarter of 2016
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Syrians, Afghans and Iraqis were the most numerous
During the third quarter of 2016 (from July to September), 358 300 first time asylum seekers applied for international protection in the Member States of the European Union (EU), up by 17% compared with the second quarter of 2016 (when 305 700 first time applicants were registered).
From January to September 2016, more than 950 000 first time asylum seekers were registered in the EU Member States. With 87 900 first time applicants between July and September 2016, Syrians remained the main citizenship of people seeking international protection in the EU Member States, ahead of Afghans (62 100 first time applicants) and Iraqis (36 400). They represent the three main citizenships of first time asylum applicants in the EU Member States over the third quarter 2016, accounting for slightly more than half of all first time applicants.
These quarterly data on asylum in the EU come from a report issued by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.
Two-thirds applied for asylum in Germany
During the third quarter of 2016, the highest number of first time applicants was registered in Germany (with over 237 400 first time applicants, or 66% of total first time applicants in the EU Member States), followed by Italy (34 600, or 10%), France (20 000, or 6%), Greece (12 400, or 4%), the United Kingdom (9 200, or 3%) and Austria (8 400, or 2%).
Among Member States with more than 2 000 first time asylum seekers in the third quarter 2016, numbers of first time applicants rose most compared with the previous quarter in Bulgaria (+82%), the Netherlands (+72%), Belgium (+29%), Italy (+28%) and Germany (+27%). In contrast, the largest decreases were recorded in Hungary (-73%), Poland (-37%) and Austria (-22%).
Highest number of first time applicants relative to the population in Germany, Greece and Malta
Compared with the population of each Member State, the highest rate of registered first time applicants during the third quarter 2016 was recorded in Germany (2 890 first time applicants per million inhabitants), followed by Greece (1 152) and Malta (1 091).
In contrast, the lowest rates were observed in Slovakia (7 applicants per million inhabitants), Portugal (19), Romania (22), the Czech Republic (28) and Estonia (30). In the third quarter 2016, there were in total 702 first time asylum applicants per million inhabitants in the EU as a whole.
1 in every 4 first time asylum seekers were Syrian citizens
Syria (25% of the total number of first time applicants) remained during the third quarter of 2016 the main country of citizenship of asylum seekers in the EU Member States. Of the 87 900 Syrians who applied for the first time for asylum in the EU in the third quarter 2016, 81% were registered in Germany (71 200).
Syrians represented the main citizenship of asylum seekers in eleven EU Member States. Afghanistan (17% of the total number of first time applicants) was the second main country of citizenship of asylum seekers in the EU Member States in the third quarter 2016.
Of the 62 100 Afghans seeking asylum protection for the first time in the EU Member States during the period July-September 2016, more than 80% applied in Germany (50 500). Afghans represented the main citizenship of asylum seekers in five EU Member States.
With 36 400 first time applicants (or 10% of the EU total) during the third quarter 2016, Iraq was the third country of citizenship of asylum seekers in the EU Member States. 82% were registered in Germany (29 900).
Over a million asylum applications pending
Pending applications for international protection are those that have been made at any time and are still under consideration by the responsible national authorities at the end of the reference period. In other words, they refer to the “stock” of applications for which decisions are still pending. This statistic is meant to measure the workload of the national authorities.
At the end of September 2016, almost 1.2 million applications for asylum protection in the EU Member States were under consideration by the responsible national authorities. A year earlier, at the end of September 2015, there were around 866 000.
With nearly 689 700 pending applications at the end of September 2016 (or 58% of the EU total), Germany had by far the largest share in the EU, ahead of Sweden (112 000, or 9%), Austria (81 400, or 7%) and Italy (81 300, or 7%).