Europe Records Highest Number of Asylum Requests Since 2016

Updated Sept. 15, 2023, 12:14 p.m. PST

• The EU has recorded the highest number of asylum requests since 2016. In the first half of 2023, approximately 519,000 people applied for asylum in the EU, Norway, and Switzerland, representing a 28% increase over 2022.
• The number does not include the approximately 4 million Ukrainian refugees fleeing the Russian invasion.
• The European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA) said, "Based on current trends, applications could exceed 1 million by the end of 2023." 
• Syrians make up the biggest group of asylees, with 67,000 applications made this year, a 47% increase over 2022.
• After Syria, the main countries of origin for people seeking asylum in Europe are Bangladesh, Colombia, Pakistan, Turkey, and Venezuela. The majority of Syrian asylees are seeking asylum in Germany, while Venezuelan refugees are seeking asylum in Spain, where many have been granted humanitarian visas.
• Asylum claims from sub-Saharan Africa have doubled due to conflict, hunger, and poverty in the region.
• Forty-one percent of applicants receive refugee status or protection after the initial processing stage.
• The rise in asylum requests comes as the EU seeks to push through its flagship migration package, which still needs to win the support of member countries. The proposed deal would require border countries to implement stricter asylum procedures. Non-border countries would be given a choice of either accepting a certain quota of migrants each year or paying into a joint EU fund.

Updated August 30, 2023, 4:35 p.m. PST

• Four migrants died in a shipwreck off the coast of Lesbos, Greece, on Monday, Aug. 28. The deceased were all children: one eight-year-old boy and three girls aged 11 months, eight, and 14.
• The 18 survivors include asylum seekers from Somalia, Palestine, and Yemen. They were transferred to the main city on the island of Lesbos, Mytilene.
• Over 14,000 people have reached Greece by both land and sea this year alone, according to the United Nations.
• Human rights groups have criticized Greece’s tough policy, which essentially allows authorities to push back potential asylum seekers at sea, putting them at risk of drowning or starvation.

Updated August 17, 2023, 10:00 a.m. PST

• Over 63 asylum seekers are feared dead after their wooden fishing vessel was found drifting off the coast of Cape Verde. The boat was originally spotted on Monday in the Atlantic Ocean by a Spanish fishing boat.
• The asylum seekers left Senegal on July 10 with about 100 passengers onboard. 
• Emergency services have recovered the remains of seven people, while another 56 people remain missing. The survivors include four children. 
• The Atlantic migration route from West Africa to the Canary Islands, which is used to reach mainland Spain, is one of the world’s deadliest. At least 559 people died attempting to reach the Canary Islands in 2022 alone.

What's the story?

• Over 2,000 people are currently missing at sea as the number of migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean has more than doubled in the first half of 2023 — signaling a global human rights crisis.
• The European Union's border agency, Frontex, has released new figures showing irregular crossings at the borders are at their highest in seven years.
• The report found that irregular migrations were up 13% between January and July, with 176,100 people attempting to reach Europe. Frontex said the increase was driven by a 115% rise in the number of people using the "central Mediterranean" route — from North Africa to Italy and Greece — which 89,000 people successfully took in 2023 alone.

A human rights crisis

• Tunisia is the launching pad for most migrants who take this dangerous route. The route can take several days and is usually made in unseaworthy, overcrowded, unsanitary vessels.
• Despite mass drownings, people continue to attempt the route, fleeing poverty, war, and starvation at home. "Migratory pressure" has grown due to chronic instability in Sub-Saharan Africa, Afghanistan, and Syria. The recent military coup in Niger has contributed to a new stream of refugees. 
• Frontex expects the number to keep rising as smugglers are "offering lower prices to migrants amid fierce competition among criminal groups."
• At least 41 people are believed to have died last week when a boat sailing from Tunisia sank off the Italian island of Lampedusa. Children are among those presumed dead.
• In June, a fishing trawler carrying up to 750 people sank in international waters off Pylos, Greece, and only 104 people were rescued. 
• By the end of 2022, there were almost 12.4 million refugees and 1.3 million asylum-seekers residing in Europe.

Political responses

• Poland's right-wing prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, campaigning for re-election in the fall, has announced a referendum on migration. Voters will be asked if they are willing to accept "thousands of illegal immigrants." This refers to proposed EU reforms that would have each member state take a fair share of migrants.
• Italy's right-wing prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, was elected on the promise of a naval blockade to stop migrant boats from reaching Italy. In Germany, the far-right, anti-immigration AfD party is on the rise. Germany had previously welcomed over a million refugees fleeing the Syrian civil war.
• Denmark's Social Democrat-led government passed a law in 2021 that allowed it to relocate asylum seekers to countries outside the EU while their cases are reviewed.
• The U.K. government has introduced a new measure that makes it impossible for migrants who arrive illegally to apply for asylum, a move condemned by the U.N. In 2022, over 45,000 people arrived in the U.K. on small boats, 60% more than in the previous years.
• The EU is proposing up to $2 billion in support if Tunisia's President Kais Saied helps stem the tide of migrants leaving his country's ports. The union has negotiated a new migration and asylum pact, which would include charges of approximately $21,780 a head for member countries that refuse to host refugees.

Is the U.S. doing enough to help?

—Emma Kansiz

(Photo Credit: NDLA)