Excerpts from the EUROSTAT asylum statistics press release issued on 18 June 2010:
The EU27 Member States granted protection to 78 800 asylum seekers in 2009 compared with 75 100 in 2008.
The largest groups of beneficiaries of protection status in the EU27 were citizens of Somalia (13 400 persons or 17% of the total number of persons granted protection status), Iraq (13 100 or 17%) and Afghanistan (7 100 or 9%).
In 2009, 317 500 decisions on asylum applications were made in the EU27, of which 228 600 were first instance decisions and 88 900 final decisions on appeal. Decisions made at the first instance resulted in 61 700 persons being granted protection status, while a further 17 100 received protection status on appeal.
The rate of recognition of asylum applicants, i.e. the share of positive decisions in the total number of decisions, was 27% for first instance decisions and 19% for final decisions on appeal.
In 2009, the highest number of persons granted protection status was registered in the United Kingdom (12 500), followed by Germany (12 100), France (10 400), Sweden (9 100), Italy (8 600) and the Netherlands (8 100). These Member States accounted for more than three quarters of all those granted protection status in the EU27.
The rate of recognition varies considerably among Member States…. The highest rates of recognition in the first instance were recorded in Malta (66%), Slovakia (56%), Portugal (51%), the Netherlands and Denmark (both 48%), and the lowest in Greece (1%), Ireland (4%), Spain (8%), France (14%) and Slovenia (15%).
Somalis were the single largest group of persons granted protection status in the EU27.
[M]inors accounted for 60 500 of the applicants [in 2009], of which 12 200 were unaccompanied.
Click here for the EUROSTAT Asylum Statistics document.
Click here for EUROSTAT Characteristics of asylum seekers in Europe report.
Click here for EU Commissioner for Home Affairs Cecilia Malmström’s statement on the EUROSTAT reports.
MIGRANTS AT SEA 