Eurostat has revealed that a total of 76,505 first-time asylum applicants applied for international protection in the EU countries in February 2023.
Compared to the same month in 2022, when 54,370 first-time asylum applications were received, such a number represents a 41 per cent increase, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.
According to Eurostat, similar to the other previous months, citizens of Syria were the largest group of people seeking asylum in the EU in February 2023. Data show that Syrians filed a total of 9,885 first-time applications in the respective month.
They were followed by citizens of Afghanistan, Colombia, and Venezuela, which filed a total of 9,310, 5,160, and 5,115 first-time applications in February 2023.
Moreover, following the military aggression of Russia against Ukraine, there was also a sharp increase in the number of first-time asylum applications last year, but the number has been decreasing in 2023, with them falling down to 1,110 in February 2023.
“In February 2023, the number of first-time asylum applicants with Russian citizenship ranked 8th among all citizenships, with 2,385 applications,” Eurostat added.
Germany, Spain, France & Italy Registered Highest Number of First-Time Applicants in February 2023
Data provided by Eurostat show that Germany, Spain, France, and Italy received the highest number of applications in February 2023, accounting for 77 per cent of all first-time applicants in the EU.
In February 2023, Germany recorded 25,335 first-time asylum applicants, Spain recorded 12,840 applicants, France recorded 10,520 applicants, and Italy recorded 9,840 applicants.
As per the EU as a whole, it has been stressed that there were a total of 171 first-time asylum applications per million people in February 2023.
On the other hand, when comparing the numbers with the population of every Member State of the EU, data show that Cyprus and Croatia registered the highest number of applications – 855 and 649 applicants per million people.
Conversely, Hungary registered the lowest rate – 0.2 applicants per million people.
Over 2,700 Unaccompanied Minors Applied for Asylum in EU in February 2023
The number of unaccompanied minors who applied for asylum for the first time in the EU remained high in February too.
According to Eurostat, 2,745 minors applied for asylum in the EU in February, most of whom were from Afghanistan and Syria.
Data show 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 of this year.
Germany received 1,415 applications, the Netherlands received 240 applications, Italy received 205 applications, Spain received 196 applications, and Austria received 180 applications from unaccompanied minors.