Iranians Rank Fourth Among Asylum Seekers to European Union
The European Union’s asylum support office states that in October, 3,170 Iranians applied for asylum in the union. According to this report, the total number of asylum seekers from European Union countries in that month was 60,000 people.
According to the latest report from the European Union Asylum Agency (EASO) released on Tuesday, December 11, the number of asylum applications registered in October was the highest level in 2018, reaching 60,000 cases.
In previous months, the average number of asylum seekers from European Union member states was around 51,000 people. Despite a 17 percent increase in the number of asylum seekers in October, the number of asylum seekers in the first ten months of this year decreased compared to the same period in 2017.
From January to October this year, a total of 522,284 people from European Union countries applied for asylum, which was 13 percent less than the number of asylum seekers in the first ten months of last year.
Based on statistics from the European Union Asylum Agency, three percent of asylum seekers from January to October this year were unaccompanied children, and more than one-third of them are citizens of three countries: Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Eritrea.
More than half of asylum seekers in October are citizens of ten countries, which in order of number of applications are: Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Pakistan, Albania, Venezuela, Nigeria, and Georgia. It is noteworthy that the number of asylum seekers from all these ten countries in October increased compared to the previous month.
Syrian Citizens Lead the Table
The number of Syrian refugees who registered their applications in one of the European Union countries in October was reported at 6,740 people, which was 700 people (approximately 13 percent) more than the previous month.
Citizens of Afghanistan rank second in this table with 4,921 asylum applications, and Iraqis rank third with 3,869 applications.
The number of asylum seekers from Afghanistan in October was 20 percent more than the previous month. The rate of unaccompanied Afghan children is twice the overall country average.
After these three countries, Iranian citizens rank fourth, who registered 3,170 asylum applications in the European Union in October. This number is the highest since September 2016 and is 15 percent more than the previous month.
Iranians Using Temporary Visa Cancellation to Serbia
According to this report, the increasing trend in the number of Iranian asylum seekers began in July and was due to the possibility of Iranians traveling to Serbia without a visa, which started from September last year. This possibility no longer exists as of October this year, and Iranian citizens must obtain a visa to enter Serbia.
The number of accepted Iranian asylum applications in the first quarter of this year slightly increased and reached 1,880 cases in March. The European Union Asylum Agency states that despite this, 14,503 Iranian applications are still pending review. According to this agency’s statistics, in the past six months, 38 percent of Iranian asylum applications have been approved, which is three percent less than November of last year.
In October, the number of asylum seekers from Turkey in the European Union, after a slight decline in the two previous months, increased again and reached 2,880 cases. However, published statistics show that Turkish citizens had a 9 percent increase, the lowest increase in asylum applications among the top ten countries.
Source: DW
