STAT/12/46
23 March 2012
Asylum in the EU27
The number of asylum applicants registered in the EU27 rose to 301 000 in 2011
In 2011, there were 301 000 asylum applicants registered in the EU27. It is estimated that around 90% of these were new applicants and around 10% were repeat applicants. In 2010, there were 259 000 asylum applicants.
In 2011, the main countries of citizenship of these applicants were Afghanistan (28 000 or 9% of the total number of applicants), Russia (18 200 or 6%), Pakistan (15 700 or 5%), Iraq (15 200 or 5%) and Serbia (13 900 or 5%).
These data on asylum applicants in the EU27 are issued by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.
Highest number of applicants recorded in France, Germany and Italy
In 2011, the highest number of applicants was registered in France (56 300 applicants), followed by Germany (53 300), Italy (34 100), Belgium (31 900), Sweden (29 700), the United Kingdom (26 400), the Netherlands (14 600), Austria (14 400), Greece (9 300) and Poland (6 900). These ten Member States accounted for more than 90% of applicants registered in the EU27 in 2011.
When compared with the population of each Member State, the highest rates of applicants registered were recorded in Malta (4 500 applicants per million inhabitants), Luxembourg (4 200), Sweden (3 200), Belgium (2 900) and Cyprus (2 200).
In some Member States, a large proportion of the applicants came from a single country. The Member States with the highest concentrations were Poland (63% of the applicants came from Russia), Latvia (52% from Georgia), Luxembourg (44% from Serbia), Lithuania (43% from Georgia), Bulgaria (39% from Iraq) and Hungary (38% from Afghanistan).
Three quarters of first instance decisions were rejections
In 2011 in the EU27, 237 400 first instance decisions were made on asylum applications. There were 177 900 rejections (75% of decisions), 29 000 applicants (12%) were granted refugee status, 21 400 (9%) subsidiary protection and 9 100 (4%) authorisation to stay for humanitarian reasons. It should be noted that first instance decisions made in 2011 may refer to applications registered in previous years.
If the proportion of positive decisions varies considerably among Member States, it should be kept in mind that the country of origin of applicants also differs greatly between Member States.
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