Over the last 2 years, EU+ countries (EU Member States plus Norway and Switzerland) have seen asylum applications at levels above 100,000 applications for several months. This intensification took place in the autumns of 2022 and 2023, and was particularly acute in October 2023 when 123,000 applications were lodged, echoing the scale of refugee crisis in 2015-16.  In fact, by the end of 2023, some 1.1 million applications had been lodged in the EU+ marking an 18% increase from the previous year, and the most for seven years. In addition to these new asylum applications, in March 2024 around 4.3 million persons displaced from Ukraine were  receiving Temporary Protection, thereby adding a significant layer to the overall count of individuals arriving in the EU+ with protection needs. Read the EUAA’s latest Voices in Europe to learn more about forced displacement from Ukraine.

These concurrent trends - the surge in asylum applications and the influx of displaced persons from Ukraine - are exerting immense strain on the EU+ asylum and reception systems. National authorities are being pushed to their limits in their efforts to accommodate and safeguard those in need.

The winter months of 2023-24 have seen an overall decline in asylum applications, most notably in March with just 83,000 applications received in the EU+. Such a decrease is characteristic of the winter months which typically disincentivise journeys towards the EU+, especially those involving perilous sea crossings.

In March 2024, Syrians, consistently at the forefront of asylum applications in the EU+, lodged 11,200 applications, which is stable compared to the previous month and but down by a significant margin compared to the seven-year peak of October 2023. For more information, read the latest EUAA reports on Syria and its Security situation. Afghans remained the second largest nationality group despite lodging -21% fewer applications in March 2024 (7,500) compared to a year previously. Despite this overall trend, since autumn 2023 more Afghans have been seeking asylum in Greece. Read an EUAA report on the general security and humanitarian situation in Afghanistan, as well as on the targeting of certain individuals.

In the autumn of 2023, Turkish nationals sought protection in the EU+ in unprecedented numbers such that for a short time they ranked second among all citizenships seeking protection. However, this surge turned out to be short-lived because in the months that followed far fewer Turks sought protection in the EU+, falling to just 3,800 in March 2024.

Over the last few months there has been a well-documented surge of boat arrivals in the Canary Islands. Indeed, Frontex reported in Q1 2024 the most detections of illegal border-crossings on the West African route since records began. According these data, Malian and Senegalese nationals were the most commonly detected, which corresponds with a commensurate increase in the number of asylum applications being lodged by these citizenships: in March 2024, Malians lodged 2,000 applications for asylum  in the EU+ which is the most on record and up by 260% compared to a year earlier, while Senegalese lodged 1,200 applications rising by 125% over the same period. In both cases, the increase almost exclusively took place in Spain.

Spain was also centre stage when it comes to a separate asylum trend which is independent of irregular migration:  Venezuelans and Colombians, and to a lesser extent, Peruvians have for some time been seeking protection in Spain. These Latin American nationals, who enjoy visa-free access to the Schengen area, continued to submit significant numbers of applications in the EU+ in March 2024: 5,500 from Venezuela, 4,700 from Colombia, and 2,200 from Peru. The vast majority of these applications were lodged in Spain, accounting for 89% of Venezuelan applications and 78% of Colombian applications in March 2024, plus nearly all were first-time applications, suggesting that the applicants were newly arrived in the EU+. Importantly, in March 2024 more Peruvians lodged applications in Italy than in Spain. In response to challenges linked to visa-free travel, particularly the high numbers of unfounded asylum applications, the European Commission adopted a proposal in October 2023 to strengthen the visa suspension mechanism.

Spain has also started taking steps towards regularising half a million undocumented migrants who have been living in Spain since 2021, most of whom are from Africa and Latin America. The law will not only allow them to live and work in Spain legally but also enable them to pay taxes, contribute to social security, and access healthcare, education and other public services.

To eliminate month-to-month fluctuations, the above chart offers a comprehensive overview of the asylum application trends of the top 20 nationalities in March 2024, over the last 12 months (yellow) in comparison to the preceding 12 months (blue).  Syrians and Afghans lodged the most applications for asylum during both these time periods. However, Syrian applications saw a considerable increase (+30%), whereas Afghan applications declined by 20%.

Most citizenships in the chart exhibited an upward change in their application numbers, which is to some extent a statistical artefact because nationalities with declining trends are more likely to fall out of the top 20, while those with increasing trends tend to rise into the ranking. Nevertheless, it is notable that Malians and Senegalese lodged about twice as many applications in the 12 months leading up to March 2024, and Ivorians lodged applications that increased by 80%.

In contrast, among these top citizenships, in addition to Afghans, only Pakistani, Georgians and Tunisians  lodged substantially fewer applications in the 12 months leading up to March 2024.

In March 2024, Germany maintained its position as the foremost destination for asylum seekers in the EU+, receiving the most applications (18,000) which amounts to 22% of the total.  This, despite the fact that Germany has been receiving fewer applications over the last few months, falling in fact to the lowest level since the summer 2022. Last year, it was not unusual for Germany to receive more applications than the next two receiving countries combined, but this trend was not maintained in early 2024 probably because of the combined effect of declining applications in Germany, plus Italy receiving a surge of applications, rising to 16,000 in March 2024 which is the highest on record for Italy, and constitutes 19% of the total just behind Germany.

Certain citizenships tend to lodge the vast majority of their applications in a single EU+ country. In March 2024, these included: Venezuelans and Colombians who lodged nearly 90%, and three quarters of their applications in Spain,  respectively, as well as Bangladeshis, Tunisians and Egyptians all of whom lodged the vast majority of their applications in Italy.

Evaluating which EU+ countries tend to receive the most applications for asylum is important but to some extent a simple like-for-like comparison is not appropriate because the EU+ countries vary wildly in terms of the size and capacity of their asylum and reception systems. As a rough measure of their overall capacity and a more nuanced estimation of the pressure exerted on national authorities, this chart illustrates the number of asylum applications lodged per million inhabitants (Eurostat population data).

In March 2024, Cyprus, with a small population size of around 921,000, received 1,100 asylum applications. This amounts to a rate of 1,200 applications per million population, or 1 application for every 800 inhabitants. In contrast, Germany reported many more applications for asylum (circa 18,000); however, given its larger population of 84 million, the German rate was lower at 217 applications per million inhabitants, or 1 application per 4,600 inhabitants. Italy and neighbouring Austria, while receiving very different numbers of applications per se (16,000 and 2,400, respectively) actually received very similar numbers of applications per capita: each at around or just below 270 applications per million population.

Taking the whole EU+ into consideration: its population of 463 million and 83,000 asylum applications received in March 2024, converts into 180 applications per million population, or about 1 application for every 5,400 persons.

Uniquely among EU+ countries, Hungary received just a single application for asylum in March 2024, probably because since 2020 applicants are required to submit a declaration of intent at a Hungarian embassy in a non-EU country before they can enter the country and apply for international protection. Read more in the EUAA Asylum Report 2021.

In addition to asylum applications, as of the end of March 2024, there were also 4.3 million persons benefiting from temporary protection in the EU+. This protection is based on a 2001 Directive which was triggered for the first time in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 with the aim of offering quick and effective assistance to people displaced to the EU+. At the end of March 2024, half of all beneficiaries of temporary protection were either in Germany (1.3 million) or Poland (1 million). For context and to allow comparisons with the inflow of asylum applications, the chart above can also be used to illustrate the number of beneficiaries of temporary protection per capita being hosted in each EU+ country. In Czechia, there were about 34,000 beneficiaries per million inhabitants, which amounts to one beneficiary for every 30 inhabitants, followed by Lithuania, Poland, and Estonia, (at approximately 25,000 – 27,000 beneficiaries per million, or 1 beneficiary for every 37 - 40 inhabitants).