Almost 966,000 asylum applications were submitted to members of the European Union in 2022, the European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA) announced yesterday.
“In 2022, EU+ countries received some 966,000 applications for international protection, up more than 50 % from 2021,” the EUAA said in a report, noting that the record was the “highest since 2016.” The EU+ includes Norway and Switzerland.
The agency pointed out that Syrians, Afghans and Turks were the “largest applicant groups,” registering 132,000, 129,000 and 55,000 applications respectively. It added that applications from Turkiye had doubled since 2021.
“It comes in addition to around 4 million people fleeing Ukraine who benefit from temporary protection,” the EUAA noted.
The humanitarian agency explained that the increase in applications was due to the “removal of COVID-19-related restrictions, longer-term underlying trends such as conflicts and food insecurity in many regions, as well as the significant numbers of applications by nationals from visa-free countries who arrived legally.”
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Montather Rassoul