(18 September 2015) – From April to June 2015, 213 200 first time asylum seekers applied for protection in the European Union, up by 85% compared with the second quarter of 2014.
In particular, the number of Syrians and Afghans rose considerably to reach almost 44 000 and 27 000 respectively. They account for a third of all first time applicants.
The highest number of first time applicants was registered in Germany (80 900 first time applicants, or 38% of total first time applicants in the EU), followed by Hungary (32 700, or 15%), Austria (17 400, or 8%), Italy (14 900, or 7%), France (14 700, or 7%) and Sweden (14 300, or 7%). Compared with the previous quarter, the number of first time asylum applicants in the second quarter 2015 notably jumped in the Netherlands (+159%), Latvia (+123%), Austria (+79%), Finland (+67%) and Denmark (+66%).
At the end of June 2015, around 592 000 persons were the subject of an application for asylum protection in the EU still under consideration by the responsible national authority. Last year, at the end of June 2014, there were nearly 365 000.
With 305 800 pending applications at the end of June 2015 (or 52% of the EU total), Germany had by far the largest share in the EU, ahead of Sweden (56 000, or 9%), Italy (48 300, or 8%), France (36 100, or 6%), the United Kingdom (29 400, or 5%) and Greece (29 200, or 5%).