EU lidstaten verleenden 76.300 aanvragers asiel in 2008 (en)

STAT/09/175

8 December 2009

Asylum decisions in the EU27

EU Member States granted protection to 76 300 asylum seekers in 2008

The EU27 Member States granted protection to 76 300 asylum seekers in 2008. The largest groups of beneficiaries of protection status 1 in the EU27 were citizens of Iraq (16 600 persons or 22% of the total number of persons granted protection status), Somalia (9 500 or 12%), Russia (7 400 or 10%), Afghanistan (5 000 or 7%) and Eritrea (4 600 or 6%).

These data on the results of asylum applications in the EU27 are taken from a report 2 issued by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities . They are published on the occasion of the Human Rights Day 3 which will occur on 10 December.

Nearly 30% of EU27 asylum decisions at the first instance resulted in protection status

In 2008, 281 100 decisions on asylum applications 4 were made in the EU27 , of which 209 200 were first instance decisions and 71 900 final decisions on appeal. At the first instance 5 59 300 persons were granted protection status, and 17 000 received a final positive decision 6 on appeal. The rate of recognition of asylum applicants, i.e. the share of positive decisions in the total number of decisions, was 28% in the first instance and 24% for final decisions. Of the 76 300 persons who were granted protection status, 40 000 persons were granted refugee status, 25 500 subsidiary protection and 10 800 granted authorisation to stay for humanitarian reasons.

Two thirds of all grants of protection status in the EU27 registered in France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy and Sweden

In 2008, the highest number of persons granted protection status were registered in France (11 500), followed by Germany (10 700), the United Kingdom (10 200), Italy (9 700), Sweden (8 700), the Netherlands (6 100) and Austria (5 700).

The rate of recognition varies considerably among Member States. The highest rates in the first instance were recorded in Poland (65%), Lithuania and Portugal (both 64%), Austria (62%) and Denmark (58%), and the lowest in Greece (less than 1%), Slovenia (3%), Spain (5%), the Czech Republic , France and Romania (all 16%). The highest rates of recognition for final decisions were registered in Finland (87%), the Netherlands (52%) and Sweden (49%). However, it should be kept in mind that the country of citizenship of applicants differs greatly between Member States.

Iraqis were the single largest group of persons granted protection status in ten EU27 Member States. Of the

16 600 Iraqis granted protection status in the EU27 , 6 400 were registered in Germany , 4 000 in Sweden and

2 300 in the Netherlands . Of the 9 500 Somalis granted protection, 3 500 were recorded in Italy and 1 500 each in Sweden and the Netherlands , and of the 7 400 Russians , 2 700 were in Poland , 2 000 in Austria and

1 200 in France .

Decisions on a sylum applications in 2008

Data are rounded to the nearest five.

0 means less than 3.

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  not available

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  The total number of decisions refers to the number of administrative decisions rather than the number of individuals

** Rate of recognition is the share of positive decisions (first instance or final on appeal) in the total number of decisions at the given stage. In this calculation, the exact number of decisions has been used instead of the rounded numbers presented in this table.

*** EU27 as a sum or average of available data.

EU27: Belgium (BE), Bulgaria (BG), the Czech Republic (CZ), Denmark (DK), Germany (DE), Estonia (EE), Ireland (IE), Greece (EL), Spain (ES), France (FR), Italy (IT), Cyprus (CY), Latvia (LV), Lithuania (LT), Luxembourg (LU), Hungary (HU), Malta (MT), the Netherlands (NL), Austria (AT), Poland (PL), Portugal (PT), Romania (RO), Slovenia (SI), Slovakia (SK), Finland (FI), Sweden (SE) and the United Kingdom (UK).

Iceland (IS), Norway (NO), Switzerland (CH)

Largest group s granted protection status, 2008

Data are rounded to the nearest five.

0 means less than 3.

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  Not applicable

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  No data presented for those countries of citizenship where the number of positive decisions was 2 or less during the reference period.

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  Persons with this citizenship granted protection status as a percentage of the total number of persons granted protection in this country.

** EU27 as a sum or weighted average of available data.

*** No first instance data available.

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  Protection status includes three different categories of protection:

Person granted refugee status means a person covered by a decision granting refugee status, taken by administrative or judicial bodies during the reference period. Refugee status means status as defined in Art.2(d) of Directive 2004/83/EC within the meaning of Art.1 of the Geneva Convention relating to the Status of Refugees of 28 July 1951, as amended by the New York Protocol of 31 January 1967. According to the Art.2(c) of that Directive refugee means a third country national who, owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership of a particular social group, is outside the country of nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself or herself of the protection of that country, or a stateless person, who, being outside of the country of former habitual residence for the same reasons as mentioned above, is unable or, owing to such fear, unwilling to return to it.

Person granted subsidiary protection status means a person covered by a decision granting subsidiary protection status, taken by administrative or judicial bodies during the reference period. Subsidiary protection status means status as defined in Art.2(f) of Directive 2004/83/EC. According to the Art.2(e) of that Directive person eligible for subsidiary protection means a third country national or a stateless person who does not qualify as a refugee but in respect of whom substantial grounds have been shown for believing that the person concerned, if returned to his or her country of citizenship, or in the case of a stateless person, to his or her country of former habitual residence, would face a real risk of suffering serious harm and is unable, or, owing to such risk, unwilling to avail himself or herself of the protection of that country.

Person granted authorisation to stay for humanitarian reasons means a person covered by a decision granting authorisation to stay for humanitarian reasons under national law concerning international protection, taken by administrative or judicial bodies during the reference period. It includes persons who are not eligible for international protection as currently defined in the first stage legal instruments, but are nonetheless protected against removal under the obligations that are imposed on all Member States by international refugee or human rights instruments or on the basis of principles flowing from such instruments. Examples of such categories include persons who are not removable on ill health grounds and unaccompanied minors.

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  Eurostat , Statistics in Focus, 92/2009 " 75 thousand asylum seekers granted protection status in the EU in 2008 ", available free of charge in PDF format on the Eurostat web site. The data used for this publication are provided to Eurostat by the Ministries of Interior, Justice or immigration agencies of the Member States. These data are supplied by Member States according to the provisions of Article 4 of the Regulation (EC) 862/2007 of 11 July 2007 on Community statistics on migration and international protection.
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  For more information see: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/HRD10December2009.aspx
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  Asylum application means an application for international protection as defined in Art.2(g) of Council Directive 2004/83/EC, i.e. including requests for refugee status or for subsidiary protection status, irrespective of whether the application was lodged on arrival at border, or from inside the country, and irrespective of whether the person entered the territory legally (e.g. as a tourist) or illegally.
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  First instance decision means a decision made in response to an asylum application at the first instance level of the asylum procedure.
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  Final decision on appeal means a decision granted at the final instance of administrative/judicial asylum procedure and which results from the appeal lodged by the asylum seeker rejected in the preceding stage of the procedure. As the asylum procedures and the numbers/levels of decision making bodies differ between Member States, the true final instance may be, according to the national legislation and administrative procedures, a decision of the highest national court. However, the applied methodology defines that 'final decisions' should refer to what is effectively a 'final decision' in the vast majority of all cases: i.e. that all normal routes of appeal have been exhausted.

Eurostat press releases on the Internet: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat