Europe asylum applications up by a third in 2021

The number of asylum applications lodged in the EU, Norway, Switzerland and the U.K. increased by a third in 2021, an analysis published Tuesday by the European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA) has found.

In total, 617,800 applications for international protection were filed in 2021, marking a return to pre-pandemic figures. The main countries of origin were Syria with 106,000 applications, Afghanistan with 97,800 applications, which doubled from 2020, and Iraq with 28,700 applications.

Other countries with increased applications included Belarus, with 3,800 applications, three times more than the year before, and North Macedonia, which has quadrupled its applications to 5,000.

In an interview with POLITICO, EUAA Executive Director Nina Gregori highlighted the extraordinary circumstances of many Afghans who re-applied in 2021 as the country fell to Taliban insurgents, after having been rejected in previous years.

“Many applicants from Afghanistan were already in Europe. Some of them had already received a negative decision but they were not in the position to be returned,” Gregori said. The European countries must recognize that “it was different than when they applied for the first time,” Gregori added.

While over the course of the year only 66 percent of Afghan applications were accepted, that rose to around 90 percent toward the end of the year after the fall of Kabul. Among countries that made more than 1,000 applications, Eritreans had the best chance of having their requests accepted with 81 percent approved, followed by Yemenis with 79 percent and Belarusians with 75 percent.

But overall, only 35 percent of all applications in the EU, Norway, Switzerland and the U.K. were accepted.

The report also found there is a backlog of around 443,000 unresolved applications, with pending cases continuously increasing since June 2021. Gregori said that the EU already has enough tools that could be used to improve its response time. “Europe can establish a list of safe third countries and safe countries of origin — but we haven’t managed to do that,” she said. Such a list would also “send a message” to smugglers and organized crime, Gregori added.

In 2020, unusually few asylum applications were lodged due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the EUAA said in a press release.