Coronavirus Crisis Significantly Reduces Number of Asylum Seekers in European Union

Asylum applications in the European Union have experienced a marked decline since the beginning of the coronavirus crisis. The majority of asylum seekers continued to come from Syria, Afghanistan, and Venezuela. Approximately 32 percent of applications received positive responses.

The European Asylum Support Office (EASO) states that the number of asylum seekers in EU member states in 2020 decreased by 31 percent compared to the previous year.

The office, referring to 521,000 preliminary case reviews of asylum files, adds that last year officials were able, for the first time since 2017, to process more cases other than new applications.

According to the European Union’s immigration and asylum support office, in 2020 a total of 461,300 asylum applications were submitted in 27 EU member states as well as Norway and Switzerland.

The majority of asylum seekers, as in the previous year, came from Syria, Afghanistan, and Venezuela. With a few exceptions, such as Belarus and Brazil, asylum seekers from all countries have decreased their migration to Europe.

The European Asylum Support Office states that despite the coronavirus pandemic, national asylum authorities maintained their level of initial decisions on asylum cases at the 2019 level.

With the reduction in asylum applications and the maintenance of the level of preliminary case reviews, the number of unreviewed cases decreased to approximately 74,000 cases. While by the end of 2020, according to the same office, 412,000 cases still awaited preliminary review.

Last year, the number of cases granted asylum remained at 32 percent. Syrian, Eritrean, and Yemeni citizens had the highest chances of receiving asylum. Conversely, Colombian and Venezuelan citizens had very little chance of receiving positive responses to their asylum applications.

Source: DW