03 Sep Asylum applications in the EU+ increase significantly, but remain at half pre-COVID-19 levels
After the relaxation of the measures in the EU and the countries, in June the received applications for international protection were 31 500 which represented a threefold increase from May. This number is still about half the level prior to the first two months of the year and the outbreak of the pandemic.
It is expected that in the coming months, applications for asylum are going to rise, but slowly, because of the partial limitations of the asylum services and the travel restrictions with third countries.
Migrants from Syria and Afghanistan continued to file the most applications for asylum, followed by Venezuelans and Colombians.
Decision making has been less affected by the pandemic measures in EU and the countries, since in June over 34 300 first-instance decisions were issued, which was a bit more than in May. The temporary suspension of face-to-face interviews has mainly contributed to the decrease in decisions, but the number of pending cases at first instance is getting lower.
For more information and an interactive data-visualisation, please visit the Latest Asylum Trends page, here:https://www.easo.europa.eu/latest-asylum-trends