(22 March 2013) – In 2012, there were 332 000 asylum applicants registered in the EU27, according to Eurostat. While Afghanistan (8% of the total number of applicants) remained in 2012 the first main country of citizenship of these applicants, Syria (7%) became the second just ahead of Russia (7%), Pakistan (6%) and Serbia (6%).
In 2012, the highest number of applicants was registered in Germany (77 500 applicants, or 23% of total applicants), followed by France (60 600, or 18%), Sweden (43 900, or 13%), the United Kingdom (28 200, or 8%) and Belgium (28 100, or 8%). These five Member States accounted for more than 70% of all applicants registered in the EU27 in 2012.
Compared with the population of each Member State, the highest rates of applicants registered were recorded in Malta (5 000 applicants per million inhabitants), Sweden (4 600), Luxembourg (3 900), Belgium (2 500) and Austria (2 100), and the lowest in Portugal (30), Estonia and Spain (both 55) and the Czech Republic (70).
In 2012 in the EU273, 73% of first instance decisions made on asylum applications were rejections, while 14% of applicants were granted refugee status, 10% subsidiary protection and 2% authorisation to stay for humanitarian reasons.