{"id":917536,"date":"2026-04-25T12:02:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T12:02:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/917536\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T12:02:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T12:02:16","slug":"trends-in-asylum-applications-in-the-eu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/917536\/","title":{"rendered":"Trends in Asylum Applications in the EU"},"content":{"rendered":"

The following is an adaptation of an article<\/a> written by Vivien Pesztericz-Kalas, a researcher at the University of Public Service Institute for Strategic Studies, originally published on\u00a0the\u00a0Five Minutes Europe\u00a0blog of\u00a0Ludovika.hu.<\/p>\n

Migration pressure on the European Union has fluctuated over the past decade due to global political crises and the pandemic. While record numbers of asylum applications marked the 2015 crisis and the period between 2022 and 2024, the latest data already indicate a slowdown in these trends.<\/p>\n

One of the most important indicators of the asylum situation in the European Union\u2014and its member states\u2014is the number of first-time asylum applications. This data shows how many new arrivals are seeking protection in EU member states, thus providing a direct picture of the current pressure on the asylum system. It therefore does not include individuals whose applications have been rejected and who are trying again in the same country, but it may include those who previously attempted to obtain refugee status in another member state.<\/p>\n

According to the latest Eurostat data from 2025<\/a>, approximately 670,000 people applied for asylum in the European Union for the first time last year. The largest group\u2014about 90,000\u2014was Venezuelan citizens, while Afghans and Syrians made up the second- and third-largest groups, respectively. The increase in the number of arrivals from Venezuela was driven, on the one hand, by political developments following the July 2024 presidential election. After the election results were widely contested, the Maduro government launched a crackdown on the opposition and protesters, which generated fear and uncertainty. This was exacerbated by the chronic economic crisis: millions lost their livelihoods due to hyperinflation, food and medicine shortages, and the collapse of basic public services. <\/p>\n

Migration to Europe was further encouraged by the tightening of US immigration policies<\/a>, which forced people seeking to leave their homeland to shift their focus to new destinations. Due to the shared language and the existing diaspora, Spain became the EU member state where the vast majority of Venezuelans\u201497 per cent\u2014sought protection. Most asylum applications were initially filed in Spain, Italy, France, and Germany in 2025. In terms of immigrants\u2019 countries of origin, Spain had to process applications from Afghan and Syrian refugees in addition to those from Venezuela; in Germany, too, the vast majority came from these latter two countries. In France, however, Ukrainian and Congolese immigrants were the most numerous, while in Italy, Bangladeshi and Peruvian citizens constituted the two largest groups.<\/p>\n

\n

\u2018Approximately 670,000 people applied for asylum in the European Union for the first time last year\u2019<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Looking at trends<\/a> over the past decade, the migratory pressure on the European Union has been closely linked to global political and health events, which have directly shaped the trend in the number of first-time asylum applications. The first peak in this trend occurred during the 2015 migration wave, when the Syrian civil war and instability in the Middle East caused the number of first-time applications to approach 1.2 million. Subsequently, the COVID-19 pandemic brought about a significant downturn: due to lockdowns and restrictions on global mobility, the number of applications fell below half a million in 2020 and barely exceeded that figure in 2021 either. The post-pandemic period, however, particularly between 2022 and 2024, resulted in a second major surge. At that time, as a result of the Russia\u2013Ukraine war and the deepening crises in Venezuela and Afghanistan, the number of applications once again approached or reached the one-million-per-year level. The fluctuations in the number of applications accurately reflect the vulnerability of Europe\u2019s asylum infrastructure to global political developments and crises.<\/p>\n

Related articles:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Click here<\/a> to read the original article.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The following is an adaptation of an article written by Vivien Pesztericz-Kalas, a researcher at the University of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":917537,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5174],"tags":[257405,2881,93375,2527,1700,2000,299,5187,2299,257406,106116,6657,257407,257408,2887,2577,6658,199084,6500,10284,8518],"class_list":["post-917536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-eu","tag-2015-crisis","tag-afghanistan","tag-asylum-applications","tag-asylum-seekers","tag-economy","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-european","tag-global-politics","tag-health-situation","tag-member-states","tag-migration","tag-migration-pressure","tag-migration-wave","tag-pandemic","tag-policies","tag-refugees","tag-slowdown","tag-syria","tag-trends","tag-venezuela"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116465247738293617","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/917536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=917536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/917536\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/917537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=917536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=917536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=917536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}