The European Union saw first-time asylum requests spike 10% in October from the previous month and 66% from the year before, according to monthly asylum data published by Eurostat on Wednesday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th January, 2023) The European Union saw first-time asylum requests spike 10% in October from the previous month and 66% from the year before, according to monthly asylum data published by Eurostat on Wednesday.
The EU's statistics agency estimated that 99,175 non-EU citizens requested protection in the EU for the first time last October, up from 90,545 in September and 59,870 in October 2021.
Syrians made up almost a fifth of all asylum seekers, followed by Afghans and Turks.
The number of Ukrainians, who are also eligible for a temporary protection benefit, fell to 950 in October, from the high of 12,890 in March. Russians were the 13th largest nationality with 1,960 requests, 650 more than in September.
Among the recipient countries, Germany accounted for a quarter of all asylum requests. It received applications from 24,910 asylum seekers in October, followed by Austria, France, Spain and Italy. Austria stood out as the country with the most applicants per million population.
