Europe: One million asylum applications in 2022

Around one million people applied for asylum in the EU+ countries, comprising EU member states as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland, last year. This is an increase of around 50 percent compared to 2021, according to the EU Asylum Agency (EUAA).

According to the report, about 996,000 applications for international protection were filed in the EU+ countries. Together with the approximately four million war refugees from Ukraine – who do not have to go through elaborate asylum procedures – around five million people sought protection in Europe in 2022, according to the EUAA.

The European asylum record numbers of 2015 (1.4 million) and 2016 (1.3 million) were not reached overall. However, according to the EUAA, individual EU countries recorded more applications than at any time since records began to be taken across Europe in 2008, including Austria, France, Spain and Portugal.

Of the nearly one million asylum applications, most were received in Germany (244,000), France (156,000), Spain (118,000), Austria (109,000) and Italy (84,000). Most applications were submitted by people from Syria, Afghanistan, Turkey, Venezuela and Colombia.

Among the applicants were 42,000 unaccompanied children and minors – the highest number since 2016. Almost two thirds of them are Afghans or Syrians.

“A combination of crises, including new and ongoing conflicts, climate shocks, geopolitical unrest, violence and persecution, caused millions of people to flee their homes last 2022,” the report says. “The Russian invasion of Ukraine led to one of the fastest developing and largest displacement crises since World War II.”

Austin Ohaegbu