Last year, applications by asylum seekers to a European member states increased by a hundred thousand, compared to last year. The largest group af applicants came from Syria. Just over a third of first instance decisions were positive. Italy registered about 28,000 applications.
A hundred thousand asylum applications more in just twelve months. In 2013, 435,000 asylum applicants were registered in the European Union; in 2012, there were 335,000, according to a recent Eurostat survey, which underlines that the boost in applications could have been caused by the incredible number of applications by Syrian citizens.
70 percent of all applicants were registered in just five countries: Germany, France, Sweden, the United Kingdom and Italy. Last year, Germany registered 127,000 applicants (29 percent of total applicants), France 65,000 (15 percent), Sweden 54,000 (13 percent), the United Kingdom 30,000 (7 percent) and Italy 28,000 (6 percent). Thus, the problem is present in Italy, yet it is not even comparable with the pressure on other countries, especially if we take into consideration the rate of applicants compared with the population of each Member State. From this point of view, the highest rate was recorded in Sweden (5,700 applicants per million inhabitants), Malta (5,300), Austria (2,100), Luxembourg (2,000), Hungary and Belgium (1,900 both). The Italian rate is considerably lower, 470 per million inhabitants.
Member States which have been less affected by the phenomenon, with rates below 100 applicants per million inhabitants, are Portugal (50), the Czech Republic (65), Estonia (70), Romania (75), Slovakia (80), Latvia and Spain (95).
Syrians and Russians alone accounted for nearly a quarter of all asylum seekers. There were 50,000 Syrian asylum applicants (12 percent of the total number of applicants) , ahead of 41,000 Russian asylum applicants (10 percent). Then 26,000 Afghans, 22,000 Serbians, 21,000 Pakistans and 20,000 Kosovans. Italy, however, rcorded 3,500 applications by Nigerian asylum seekers, 3,100 by Pakistan and 2,885 by Somali citizens.
A striking majority of these applications do not receive a positive decision: just a little more than a third of first instance decisions were positive, about 113,000 out of a total 326,310 applications. The percentage increase in Italy, where two third of first instance decisions were positive: over 16,000 out of 28,000 applications received.
