2,114 applicants for international protection in Malta in 2012

An annual report on the situation of asylum in the European Union published by the European Asylum and Support Office (EASO) reveals the Maltese Office of the Refugee Commissioner received a total of 2,114 applications in 2012.

According to the EASO, 2012 ranked the second highest year since 2001 in the number of irregular arrivals on the island and the number of applications for international protection received by the Office of the Refugee Commis­sioner. 86.3 % of applications received by the Office of the Refugee Commissioner in 2012, as in previous years, were lodged by third country nationals (TCNs) who entered Malta irregularly by sea.

The report said in view of the significant pressures facing Malta relocation of protected persons from Malta to other Member States took place during 2012. Relocation activities were organised either as part of the EU pilot project on Intra-EU relocation (EUREMA), or through bilateral projects.

The total number of applicants for international protection in the European Union reached 335,365 with applicants from Afghanistan continue to be most numerous overall in the European Union with 28,005 applications.

Of these, 260 575 were 'new' applicants for international protection (compared to 256 945 in 2011 - a 1 % increase) which means that a significant proportion of the increase was determined by an increase in subsequent applications (i.e. those made by persons already having made an application for interna­tional protection in the EU).

Large numbers of applications were made in Germany, France, Sweden, Belgium and the United Kingdom. Poland registered its highest number of applicants since EUROSTAT records began.

The report acknowledged that numbers of applica­tions made in other States such as Malta, Luxembourg and Cyprus were also significant compared to their populations.

Highest recognition rates were noted for citizens of Syria, Eritrea, Mali and Somalia.

Across the European Union, Syria showed the largest increase in applications (206% compared to 2011), due to the deteriorating security situation in the country over the course of the year.

In this context, EASO organized a network of experts with the EU Member States, to pool expertise and to be prepared for such an influx. In 2012, there were over 95% of applications from Syrian citizens being accepted by EU Member States.

The report underlines, however, that when summed together, applicants from the six Western Balkans countries, continued to represent the highest number of applications made in the EU for asylum, despite the fact that Member States judged such applications to well-founded in only 4% of cases overall.

The report also highlights major developments with regard to EU/national policy, legislative changes and jurisprudence (the acquis and their interpretation) and provides insight into the practical functioning of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS) by observing developments relating to the different stages of the asylum procedure (from access to procedure to return).

In this context, asylum reception and detention conditions and policy in Member States continued to be a challenging area.

In some cases, EASO received direct requests for assistance with various aspects of Member States' asylum systems: Four Member States (Greece, Luxembourg, Sweden and Italy) formally requested support from the Agency in 2012 in areas including training, COI and statistics.