Record number of more than 1.2 million first time asylum seekers registered in the EU last year
In 2015, a record number of over 1.2 million first time asylum seekers registered in the EU, according to new data from European statistics body Eurostat – a figure more than double that of the previous year.
More than a third of the first time applicants were registered in Germany, which received 441,800 applications – 35 per cent of the EU total.
Germany was followed by Hungary (14 per cent), Sweden (12 per cent) and Austria (7 per cent). For Hungary, this amounts to 17,699 applicants per million of the country’s population – the EU’s highest number of first time applicants relative to a country’s population.
lmost 30 per cent of the first time asylum seekers are from Syria. The figures show the number Syrian asylum seekers has doubled to 362,800 and come just a day after Nato accused Russia of trying to destabilize the EU by forcing Syrians from their homes.
There has been a 19 per cent increase in first time applications to UK, a three per cent share of the EU total.
Finland has seen an 822 per cent increase in first time applications. This is the largest percentage increase in the EU, followed by Hungary at 323 per cent and Austria at 233 per cent. Austria has now imposed a daily cap on the number of migrants and refugees entering the country.
