Asylum Bids in EU Reach 7-year High with Syrians, Afghans Topping List

An Italian Coast Guard ship carrying illegal immigrants rescued at sea passes near a tourist boat on the Sicilian island of Lampedusa, Italy, on September 18, 2023 (Reuters)
An Italian Coast Guard ship carrying illegal immigrants rescued at sea passes near a tourist boat on the Sicilian island of Lampedusa, Italy, on September 18, 2023 (Reuters)
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Asylum Bids in EU Reach 7-year High with Syrians, Afghans Topping List

An Italian Coast Guard ship carrying illegal immigrants rescued at sea passes near a tourist boat on the Sicilian island of Lampedusa, Italy, on September 18, 2023 (Reuters)
An Italian Coast Guard ship carrying illegal immigrants rescued at sea passes near a tourist boat on the Sicilian island of Lampedusa, Italy, on September 18, 2023 (Reuters)

Asylum applications in the EU surged to over one million last year, a seven-year high, with Syrians then Afghans remaining the top groups seeking protection, the bloc's asylum agency said Wednesday.

The data from the European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA) means the number of asylum-seekers in 2023 neared a level last seen in 2015-2016, when hundreds of thousands of people -- many of them Syrians fleeing civil war -- sought refuge.

Immigration, including of asylum seekers, is a headline issue for Europe as it heads for elections in June.

Far-right nationalist parties arguing for tougher entry criteria are predicted to increase their representation in the European Parliament, AFP reported.

Germany, the EU country receiving the biggest number of asylum applications in 2023 -- around 29 percent of the total -- has been roiled by the issue.

Members of that country's far-right AfD party -- soaring in the polls -- last year met extremists to discuss expelling immigrants and "non-assimilated citizens" according to a report by investigative outlet Correctiv. That sparked big counter demonstrations in Berlin and elsewhere against racism.

According to the EUAA, a total 1.14 million asylum applications were registered last year across the 27-nation European Union plus its Schengen-associated nations Norway and Switzerland.

That was an 18 percent increase over 2022 and confirmed an upward trend evident since 2020, as the EU emerged from the coronavirus pandemic during which travel was curbed.

Germany's 334,000 asylum applications received was double that of France's 167,000, and also far above Italy's 136,000.

Across the EU, Syrians submitted 181,000 applications.

Afghans lodged 114,000 which, though they were the second-biggest group, was 11 percent lower than for 2022.

There were 101,000 applications from Turkish nationals -- an 82 percent rise over the previous year -- with most lodged in Germany.

Spain saw a third more applications from Venezuelans and Colombians, at more than 60,000 for each group. They are often able to enter Spain regularly, without needing visas.

Around half that number was recorded for Moroccans, applying mostly in Austria, and for Egyptians, most of them in Italy.

Smaller numbers of Guineans and Ivorians sought asylum, mostly in France.

While Germany received nearly one in three of lodged asylum bids, it was Cyprus, followed by Austria and Greece that had the highest proportion in relation to their much smaller populations.

The EUAA noted that Hungary -- whose nationalist government is opposed to an EU drive to share responsibilities for arriving asylum-seekers -- received a mere 30 asylum applications in 2023.

That was likely because Hungary requires asylum-seekers to make a "declaration of intent at a Hungarian embassy in a non-EU country before they can enter the country" to apply, it said.

Not all applications made across the EU are approved.

The EUAA said the overall recognition rate last year was 43 percent, which was the highest since 2016 -- but results are highly correlated to nationality.

Syrians and Afghans were often granted protection -- in 80 percent and 61 percent of cases, respectively -- though the status of that protection varied.

Syrians over the past few years have tended not be classed as refugees but rather given subsidiary protection, which allows them to stay but with more obstacles to acquiring citizenship or getting permanent residency.

For Afghans, refugee status was being generally approved, reflecting the persecution many face in their country since 2021 under Taliban rule.

For Turkish nationals, the recognition rate in the EU has "significantly" decreased since 2019, the EUAA said, with only a quarter of applications winning protection.



Bangladesh Protest Leaders Taken from Hospital by Police

People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
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Bangladesh Protest Leaders Taken from Hospital by Police

People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)

Bangladeshi police detectives on Friday forced the discharge from hospital of three student protest leaders blamed for deadly unrest, taking them to an unknown location, staff told AFP.

Nahid Islam, Asif Mahmud and Abu Baker Majumder are all members of Students Against Discrimination, the group responsible for organizing this month's street rallies against civil service hiring rules.

At least 195 people were killed in the ensuing police crackdown and clashes, according to an AFP count of victims reported by police and hospitals, in some of the worst unrest of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's tenure.

All three were patients at a hospital in the capital Dhaka, and at least two of them said their injuries were caused by torture in earlier police custody.

"They took them from us," Gonoshasthaya hospital supervisor Anwara Begum Lucky told AFP. "The men were from the Detective Branch."

She added that she had not wanted to discharge the student leaders but police had pressured the hospital chief to do so.

Islam's elder sister Fatema Tasnim told AFP from the hospital that six plainclothes detectives had taken all three men.

The trio's student group had suspended fresh protests at the start of this week, saying they had wanted the reform of government job quotas but not "at the expense of so much blood".

The pause was due to expire earlier on Friday but the group had given no indication of its future course of action.

Islam, 26, the chief coordinator of Students Against Discrimination, told AFP from his hospital bed on Monday that he feared for his life.

He said that two days beforehand, a group of people identifying themselves as police detectives blindfolded and handcuffed him and took him to an unknown location.

Islam added that he had come to his senses the following morning on a roadside in Dhaka.

Mahmud earlier told AFP that he had also been detained by police and beaten at the height of last week's unrest.

Three senior police officers in Dhaka all denied that the trio had been taken from the hospital and into custody on Friday.

- Garment tycoon arrested -

Police told AFP on Thursday that they had arrested at least 4,000 people since the unrest began last week, including 2,500 in Dhaka.

On Friday police said they had arrested David Hasanat, the founder and chief executive of one of Bangladesh's biggest garment factory enterprises.

His Viyellatex Group employs more than 15,000 people according to its website, and its annual turnover was estimated at $400 million by the Daily Star newspaper last year.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police inspector Abu Sayed Miah said Hasanat and several others were suspected of financing the "anarchy, arson and vandalism" of last week.

Bangladesh makes around $50 billion in annual export earnings from the textile trade, which services leading global brands including H&M, Gap and others.

Student protests began this month after the reintroduction in June of a scheme reserving more than half of government jobs for certain candidates.

With around 18 million young people in Bangladesh out of work, according to government figures, the move deeply upset graduates facing an acute jobs crisis.

Critics say the quota is used to stack public jobs with loyalists to Hasina's Awami League.

- 'Call to the nation' -

The Supreme Court cut the number of reserved jobs on Sunday but fell short of protesters' demands to scrap the quotas entirely.

Hasina has ruled Bangladesh since 2009 and won her fourth consecutive election in January after a vote without genuine opposition.

Her government is also accused by rights groups of misusing state institutions to entrench its hold on power and stamp out dissent, including the extrajudicial killing of opposition activists.

Hasina continued a tour of government buildings that had been ransacked by protesters, on Friday visiting state broadcaster Bangladesh Television, which was partly set ablaze last week.

"Find those who were involved in this," she said, according to state news agency BSS.

"Cooperate with us to ensure their punishment. I am making this call to the nation."