Over 76,000 asylum seekers applied for international protection in the EU in February 2023

2023-05-26 10:15:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Over 76,000 asylum seekers applied for international protection in the EU in

Eurostat has revealed that around 76,505 asylum seekers applied for international protection in EU countries in February 2023.

Compared to the same month of 2022, when 54,370 asylum applications were accepted for the first time, this year there has been an increase of 41 percent, reports "SchengenVisaInfo.com".

According to Eurostat, similar to other previous months, citizens of Syria were the largest group of people seeking asylum in the EU in February 2023. The data shows that Syrians submitted a total of 9,885 applications for the first time in the corresponding month.

They were followed by nationals of Afghanistan, Colombia and Venezuela, who submitted a total of 9,310, 5,160 and 5,115 applications for the first time in February 2023.

Furthermore, following Russia's military aggression against Ukraine, there was also a sharp increase in the number of first-time asylum applications last year, but the number has been declining in 2023, falling to 1,110 in February of 2023.

"In February 2023, the number of first-time asylum applicants with Russian citizenship ranked 8th among all nationalities, with 2,385 applications," Eurostat added.

Germany, Spain, France and Italy recorded the highest number of first-time applicants in February 2023

Data provided by Eurostat shows that Germany, Spain, France and Italy received the largest number of applications in February 2023, accounting for 77 percent of all first-time applicants in the EU.

In February 2023, Germany registered 25,335 first-time asylum applicants, Spain registered 12,840 applicants, France registered 10,520 applicants and Italy registered 9,840 applicants.

Regarding the EU as a whole, it was noted that there were a total of 171 first-time asylum applications for one million people in February 2023.

On the other hand, when comparing the numbers with the population of each EU member state, the data shows that Cyprus and Croatia registered the highest number of applications at 855 and 649 applicants per million people.

In contrast, Hungary recorded the lowest rate - 0.2 applicants per million people.

Over 2,700 unaccompanied minors applied for asylum in the EU in February 2023.

The number of unaccompanied minors applying for asylum for the first time in the EU remained high in February.

According to Eurostat, 2,745 minors applied for asylum in the EU in February, most of them from Afghanistan and Syria.

The data shows that in February 2023, a total of 1,025 unaccompanied minors from Afghanistan and 675 unaccompanied minors from Syria applied for asylum for the first time.

Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain and Austria recorded the highest number of asylum applications from unaccompanied minors in February this year.

Germany received 1415 applications, the Netherlands received 240 applications, Italy received 205 applications, Spain received 196 applications and Austria received 180 applications from unaccompanied minors./ CNA.al