2023-09-05 07:28:47
Time.news – The number of migrants applying for asylum in the EU increased by 28% in the first half of this year compared to the same period a year earlier, according to official data.
Between January and the end of June this year, the European Union Asylum Agency (EUAA) said 519,000 asylum applications had been lodged in the bloc of 27 countries and associated countries, Switzerland and Norway.
This puts the EU on track to receive more than one million asylum seekers this year, the highest number since 2015-2016when there was a huge influx, especially of Syrians fleeing the war in their country.
In 2015 Europe received 1.35 million asylum applications, then in 2016 there were another 1.25 million applications. The numbers dropped in 2017 after the EU reached a deal with Turkey to reduce irregular border crossings, and during the height of the Covid pandemic in 2020 and 2021, when travel restrictions were in place.
Since then the numbers have increased, and in 2022 there was a 53% increase in applications, putting many EU countries “under pressure”, said the EUAA.
In many cases, reception and support facilities are already very limited, given that several EU countries are hosting four million Ukrainian refugees, who benefit from a separate protection status from asylum due to Russia’s war against their country. Syrians and Afghans account for nearly a quarter of asylum applications received so far this year.
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