The European Union (EU) granted protection status to nearly 333,355 asylum-seekers in 2018, according to Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.
The largest group of beneficiaries of protection status were Syria with 29 percent of the total number of persons granted protection status in the EU Member States, followed by citizens of Afghanistan with 16 percent and Iraqis with 7 percent. Of all the Syrians refugees in EU, almost 70 percent were recorded in Germany.
In 2018, the highest number of persons granted protection status was 139,600 registered in Germany, ahead of Italy and France, of which each received a third of what Germany took in.
Germany accepted 43 percent of all asylum-seekers’ application, which is a little above EU’s average of 37 percent.
Between 2015 and 2016, the number of refugees and asylum seekers increased rapidly as war in Syria erupted and crisis flared in the region. However, numbers went down since then when Syrian asylum-seekers granted protection reached about 173,000 and Afghanis 100,000 and Iraqis about 64,000.
Figures published earlier in December showed that over 60,500 applications for international protection lodged throughout the EU, with October being the month with the most claims so far. Despite this peak, applications lodged since the start of the year have remained lower than in 2017.
The European Asylum Support Office (EASO) noted that October’s increase was reflected in all the main citizenships of origin of applicants. Applications by these Syrians, Afghanis and Iraqis all increased in October compared to September, by 12 percent for Syrians, 20 percent for Afghanis and 13 percent for Iraqis.
In October, 3,170 Iranian citizens lodged applications for asylum, which is the highest number since the height of the migration crisis between September 2015 and 2016.
Open refugee cases of Iranians awaiting decisions further increased to 14,503, the highest number recorded since November 2017. In total, about 35 percent of all Iranian applicants received international protection.
As for Turkey, about 2,880 applications were lodged in October 2018, with an increase of 9 percent compared to the previous month. Based on available data, the majority of Turkish applicants is likely to have arrived in the EU during the summer.
