The number of asylum seekers in the EU, Norway, and Switzerland slightly decreased in the first half of the year, according to figures released Monday by the European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA).
The EUAA registered 513,000 new applications in the first six months of the year. This is 6,000 fewer than in the same period of 2023.
The data includes all EU countries, Norway, and Switzerland. The agency expects more than one million applications for the full year.
The largest group of asylum seekers comes from war-torn Syria (71,000), followed by Afghanistan (45,000) and Venezuela (37,000).
The 4.5 million Ukrainians who sought refuge in the EU and received temporary protection are not included in these figures.
Belgium received 3% of all applications, which amounted to 17,552. For comparison, Germany continues to receive the most applications among the 29 surveyed countries, with 124,000, which is nearly a quarter of all applications.
However, Germany still reported receiving 30,000 fewer applications compared to the same period last year.
Belgium predominantly received applications from asylum seekers coming from Afghanistan, Syria and Turkey.
It is also among the countries with the lowest rate of positive decisions for Afghan asylum seekers, with 38%. France issued many decisions to Afghans with a recognition rate of 67%, while Greece issued 98% positive decisions to Afghans.
After Germany, Spain received the second-highest number of applications (88,000), followed by Italy (85,000). Cyprus had the highest number of applications per capita with 4,900.
Statistics from the United Kingdom, no longer part of the EU, were not included in the data.
The new report can be found here.
