The European Union Asylum Agency (EUAA) announced the registration of nearly 1 million asylum requests to member states of the Union in 2022, which is an unprecedented number since the migration crisis in 2015-2016.
According to the agency’s report on Wednesday, 996,000 asylum applications were submitted to 27 EU member states, as well as Norway and Switzerland, which has increased by nearly 50% compared to 2021.
After more than a decade of war and economic collapse in Syria, citizens of this country are still at the top of the list of nationalities seeking asylum in Europe with more than 130,000 applications. Afghans, who are facing increasing security, humanitarian and financial problems after the Taliban took over Afghanistan in August 2021, are in the second place with 129,000 asylum applications.
In 2022, 55,000 Turkish citizens have applied for asylum in EU member states, which has doubled compared to 2021. According to the European Union Asylum Agency, the increase in the number of Turkish asylum seekers is mostly due to the jump in the inflation rate in Turkey, as well as “democratic regression” in this country.
Meanwhile, the latest report of the Statistics Department of the European Commission (Eurostat) indicates that at the end of 2022, more than 21,000 Iranians have received the result of their asylum application to one of the EU member states. Among them, 14,405 people applied for asylum in Germany and 1,400 people were waiting for asylum in the Netherlands.
The number of Iranians applying for asylum from European countries in July 2022 was announced as 18,975, which has increased by 12% in 5 months.
In total, Germany, France, Spain, Austria and Italy have been the destination of increasing number of asylum seekers in 2022 more than other EU member states. The European Union Asylum Agency considered the increase in the number of asylum seekers to be affected by the reduction of corona restrictions, the increase in food insecurity and the occurrence of military conflicts in some parts of the world.
