EU states granted protection to 338,000 asylum seekers in 2015

The 28 Member States of the European Union (EU) granted protection status to 338,900 asylum seekers in 2015, an increase of 75% compared with 2014. Since 2008, a total of nearly 1.1 million asylum seekers have been granted protection status in the EU.

The largest group of beneficiaries of protection status in the EU in 2015 remained citizens of Syria (171,400 persons, or 51% of the total number of persons granted protection status in the EU Member States), followed by citizens of Eritrea (27,600 or 8%) and those of Iraq (23,800 or 7%).

Syrians, for whom the number of decisions granting protection status has more than doubled compared with 2014, represented in 2015 the largest group granted protection status in more than half of the Member States. Of the 171,400 Syrians granted protection status in the EU, more than 60% were recorded in Germany (104,000). Of the 27,600 Eritreans granted protection, more than three-quarters were registered in three EU Member States: Germany (9,500), Sweden (6,600) and the Netherlands (4,900). Of the 23,800 Iraqis, 15 500 were granted protection status in Germany and 2 800 in France.

Malta granted protection to 1,320, of which 290 were recognised as refugees, while the rest were given subsidiary protection.

Almost half of positive decisions granted in Germany

In 2015, the highest number of persons granted protection status was registered in Germany (148,200, or +212% compared with 2014), followed by Sweden (34,500, or +4%), Italy (29 600, or +44%), France (26,000, or +26%), the United Kingdom (17,900, or +26%), Austria (17,800, or +77%+) and the Netherlands (17,000, or +29%).

Out of all the persons who were granted protection status in 2015 in the EU, 250,900 persons were granted refugee status (74% of all positive decisions), 61,600 subsidiary protection (18%) and 26,500 authorisation to stay for humanitarian reasons (8%). In addition to those granted protection status, the EU Member States received more than 8 100 resettled refugees. It should be noted that, while both refugee and subsidiary protection status are defined by EU law, humanitarian status is granted on the basis of national legislation.

Half of asylum decisions resulted in protection status

In 2015, almost 593,000 first instance decisions on asylum applications were made in the EU Member States and a further 189,000 final decisions following an appeal. Decisions made at the first instance resulted in nearly 308,000 persons being granted protection status, while a further 31 300 received protection status on appeal.

Recognition rates differs greatly between citizenships

The rate of recognition, i.e. the share of positive decisions in the total number of decisions, was 52% for first instance decisions in the EU. For final decisions on appeal, the recognition rate was 17%.

The outcomes of decisions on asylum applications, and therefore the recognition rate, vary between countries of citizenship of asylum applicants. Among the twenty main citizenships of asylum applicants on which decisions were taken at first instance in 2015, recognition rates in the EU ranged from less than 3% for citizens of the Western  Balkan countries to more than 97% for Syrians (see graph below).

Recognition rates at first instance for the twenty citizenships with the highest number of first instance decisions in the EU, 2015 (%)