Eurostat has issued a statistical report regarding the number and makeup of asylum applicants in the 27 EU member states and Norway, Switzerland, and Lichtenstein for the First Quarter 2011. The report documents the increased number of applications filed in Italy by Tunisians, but note that the report only addresses data through 31 March 2011.
Highlights include:
- Nearly 66 000 persons sought asylum in one of the EU Member States during the first quarter of 2011, an increase of 4 000 compared with the same period of the previous year.
- France and Germany remained the top destination countries of asylum applicants with 14 300 and 12 000 applicants respectively. France and Germany received 40% of the total applications filed.
- Germany (+ 2 700) and Italy (+1 300) recorded the highest increases in numbers of applicants in absolute terms compared to the first quarter of 2010, while Sweden (- 1 900) and the Netherlands (-700) recorded the largest falls.
- In the first quarter of 2011, the main citizenships of people seeking asylum in the EU-27 were Afghans (5 800), followed by Russians (4 100) and Iraqis (3 800).
- Tunisians (2 500) are now ranked eighth among the main countries of citizenship of asylum seekers. 90% of the Tunisian applications were made in Italy.
- 55 600 first instance decisions on asylum applications were issued in the EU-27 during the first quarter of 2011. One out of four of such decisions was positive; in total 13 500 persons received some type of protection status, including refugee status (6 800 decisions), subsidiary protection (4 600 decisions) or authorisation to stay for humanitarian reasons (2 100 decisions).
Click here for Eurostat report.
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Asylum applicants, absolute and relative change between Q1/2010 and Q1/2011
Asylum applicants, EU-27, January 2010 – March 2011
MIGRANTS AT SEA 