Nearly 75,000 asylum claims in the EU in July, down from previous year

Brussels – The downward trend that has characterized the monthly number of asylum seekers in the EU since January 2024 has come to a halt following the surge of one million applications in 2023. There were 74,695 first-time asylum applicants in July, up 6.1 percent from June. At the same time, this month also confirms the decline from the previous year: in July 2023, there were more than 80,000 applications.

In addition to the nearly 75,000 first-time applicants, there were 7,145 subsequent applicants, up 9.3 percent from June 2024. According to Eurostat’s monthly report, the vast majority–38 percent of the total–are young men, aged between 18 and 34, but there were also 2,985 asylum applications from unaccompanied minors.

Again in July 2024, Syrian nationals were the most numerous (12,295 asylum applications), followed by Afghans (6,030) and Venezuelans (5,170). The preferred destination continues to be Germany, which received 18,505 applications. Together with Italy (13,235), Spain (11,925), and France (11,300), the four countries process 74 percent of all EU asylum applications.
When looking at the number of applications relative to each country’s population, however, in July 2024, the highest rates of asylum seekers were in Greece (55.1 per hundred thousand population) and Ireland (32.2 per hundred thousand), well above the average of the 27 member states, which stood at 16.6 asylum applications per hundred thousand people.

Month by month, as of July 2024, asylum applications still pending in the EU exceeded 1.2 million. Accelerated procedures are on the rise, reaching 9,000 in July. France and Italy are the countries processing the most applications, with the accelerated procedure at 4,345 and 2,265, respectively. For Italy, the figure for asylum applications for August is already available, which shows a significant drop: 9,620, down 27 percent from July.