{"id":456889,"date":"2026-06-16T13:18:56","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T11:18:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/06\/16\/domande-di-asilo-giu-del-19-per-cento-a-marzo-su-base-annua-cresce-il-numero-delle-richieste-accettate\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T14:35:06","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T12:35:06","slug":"asylum-applications-fell-by-19-per-cent-year-on-year-in-march-while-the-number-of-successful-applications-rose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/06\/16\/asylum-applications-fell-by-19-per-cent-year-on-year-in-march-while-the-number-of-successful-applications-rose\/","title":{"rendered":"Asylum applications fell by 19 per cent year-on-year in March, while the number of successful applications rose"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 In March 2026, 47,100 third-country nationals submitted an initial application for international protection in a European Union Member State<\/strong>. Although this figure is down by 19 per cent<\/strong> compared to a year ago (in March 2025, there were 58,025<\/strong> asylum applications), the trend shows a slight 1 per cent<\/strong> increase <\/span>on a monthly basis: in February this year, 46,420 applications<\/strong> were submitted. These and other figures on migration flows to the EU have been revealed by Eurostat,<\/strong> the EU\u2019s statistical office, in a report<\/a> published today (16 June).<\/p>\n

March also saw an increase in so-called second-round applications<\/strong>, submitted by those whose previous applications had been rejected: there were 10,075<\/strong>, 28 per cent more than the 7,855 in March 2025 and 11 per cent more than the 9,080 in February 2026.<\/p>\n

As for the nationality of asylum seekers<\/strong>, in line with a well-established trend<\/a>, Venezuela<\/strong> is the most represented country. With 6,880<\/strong> applications submitted in March, citizens of this South American country accounted for 14 per cent of the total applications. The rest of the virtual podium is made up of Afghanistan (4,180 applications)<\/strong> and Bangladesh (3,195)<\/strong>, followed by Syria<\/strong> in fourth place <\/span>(1,690)<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

A separate category is that of unaccompanied minors<\/strong>. A total of 1,035<\/strong> applied for international protection within the EU in March this year. Most of them come from Somalia (260)<\/strong>, Venezuela (165)<\/strong>, Afghanistan (130)<\/strong>, Sudan (65)<\/strong>, and Syria (50)<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Looking at the issue from the opposite perspective\u2014that of the countries receiving asylum applications<\/strong>\u2014Eurostat\u2019s data covers the entire first quarter of 2026. The competent authorities examined 205,945 new applications<\/strong> during this period, an increase over the same quarter of 2025 (198,560 applications processed, +4 per cent<\/strong>). However, the processing rate was lower than in the immediately preceding quarter, the last of last year: in that quarter, 230,035 applications were examined, meaning the decline was 10 per cent<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Regarding the <\/span>outcomes<\/strong> of these decisions<\/strong>, 84,924 applications were approved, accounting for 41 per cent of the total<\/strong>. This figure is up by 28 per cent compared to the January\u2013March 2025 period<\/strong> (66,575 applications approved), but down by 18 per cent compared to the last quarter of last year<\/strong> (103,580 applications accepted). The top three countries with the highest number of beneficiaries are Afghanistan<\/strong> (24,960 approved applications), Venezuela<\/strong> (10,435), and Syria<\/strong> (6,505).<\/p>\n

The vast majority of asylum seekers who were deemed eligible for protection by the EU were granted refugee status<\/strong> (53 per cent of the total). This is followed by subsidiary protection<\/strong> (24 per cent), and humanitarian protection<\/strong> (23 per cent).<\/p>\n

Finally, Eurostat figures provide an overview of the EU Member States dealing with the highest number of asylum applications<\/strong>. In absolute terms, the country most affected by this phenomenon in March was Italy<\/strong>, with 10,900<\/strong> new applications for international protection. Spain<\/strong> also exceeded 10,000 (10,840 applications<\/strong>), followed by France (8,895)<\/strong> and Germany (6,980)<\/strong>. The four most populous EU countries accounted for <\/span>80 per cent of all applications<\/strong> submitted in March.<\/p>\n

The ranking, however, changes if we use the criterion that most accurately reflects which countries are under the greatest pressure: a comparison with the total population of each country<\/strong>. From this perspective, the country with the highest number of asylum seekers relative to its population was Greece, with 23.2 applications for international protection per 100,000 inhabitants<\/strong>. In second place is Spain<\/strong> with 22.1 applications, while third place is taken by Cyprus<\/strong> with 19 applications per 100,000 inhabitants.<\/p>\n

Finally, the “top 3” countries with the highest number of successful applications<\/strong>. Leading the ranking is Germany with 27,860 approved applications<\/strong>, followed by Spain (16,820)<\/strong> and France (15,210)<\/strong>. In this case, however, Italy lags behind the “club” of major EU powers<\/strong>, with just 9,055<\/strong> asylum applications accepted in March.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to Eurostat figures, the majority of asylum seekers come from Venezuela, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh. Italy has to process the most applications, but Germany grants the highest number of permits<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7899,"featured_media":456843,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[29788],"tags":[26468,25815,26206,31425,26205,27366,27914,26130],"class_list":["post-456889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-diritti-en","tag-applicants-asylum-en","tag-eurostat-en-2","tag-immigration-en-2","tag-protection-international-en","tag-refugees-en-2","tag-rights-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7899"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=456889"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456889\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":456890,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456889\/revisions\/456890"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/456843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}