Asylum claims to Europe up by 45% since 2013

The number of newly registered asylum seekers in Southern Europe went up to  170,700 in 2014 – the highest on record (+95%), according to the 2014 UNHCR Asylum trends.

The UNHCR’s Asylum Trends 2014 report puts the estimated number of new asylum applications lodged in industrialized countries throughout the year at 866,000, a 45 per cent increase from 2013, when 596,600 claims were registered. The 2014 figure is the highest since 1992, at the beginning of the conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In Southern Europe (Albania, Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Spain and Turkey) the number of newly registered asylum-seekers went up sharply to reach 170,700. Turkey and Italy were the main recipients of asylum applications in the region (87,800 and 63,700, respectively) followed by Greece (9,500) and Spain (5,900). The increase in Italy is mainly due to boat arrivals.

Asylum application per capita

Between 2010 and 2014, Germany received the largest number of new asylum-seekers (434,300 claims), followed by the United States of America (403,300), France (274,500), Sweden (234,700), and Turkey (184,300). Together, the three leading asylum countries received 40 per cent of all asylum requests submitted in the 44 industrialized countries.

The analysis changes when comparing the number of asylum-seekers to the size of the national population. Based on this indicator, between 2010 and 2014 Sweden received, on average, the highest number of asylum-seekers compared to its national population: 24.4 applicants per 1,000 inhabitants.

Malta ranked second (17.5 applicants per 1,000 inhabitants), followed by Luxembourg (12.6), Switzerland and Montenegro (12.3 applicants per 1,000 inhabitants each).