Over half a million asylum applications have been lodged in the European Union during the first 9 months of 2019, says EASO report.
Over half a million (515 825) asylum applications have been lodged in the European Union during the first 9 months of 2019, up by 10% compared to the same period a year ago, according to European Asylum Support Office (EASO).
The proportion of applications receiving a positive decision (known as “recognition rate”) so far this year was 34%, compared to 33% in the first nine months of 2018, the EASO said in a statement.
Majority of applications were lodged by nationals of Syria, Afghanistan and Venezuela.
These three citizenships continued to account for a quarter of all asylum applications in the EU+. For the sixth consecutive month, Afghan applications outnumbered Venezuelan, and peaked in September, when more applications were lodged (> 5 600) than in any month since December 2016.
Data suggest that, EU countries characterised by lower Population size (i.e Cyprus, Malta, Greece, Sweden and Luxembourg) were under particularly high pressure.
