In 2015, 1.26 million people sought asylum in the EU, which was double that of the number of 565,000 for 2014. Of the 1.26 million, 52 percent were recognized as refugees in the first instance while it had been 46 percent in 2014. The number of people who were recognized as refugees was 310,000, which was less than 0.1 percent of the EU Population. At the end of 2015, 1 Million applications were pending, which included numbers carried forward from the previous year.
Of the 2015 applicants, the route taken into the EU was the Eastern Mediterranean by about 885,000 of the 1.26 Million people while the Western Balkan route was taken by 764,000 people who were detected. Sweden received 155,000 applications which was 1.6 percent of its population. It accepted 30,000 people. Germany received 440,000 applications in 2015 which was 0.54 percent of its population. It gave positive decisions to 140,000 people.
In 2016, the number of applicants came down to 1.20 Million, down 4 percent from 2015. More than 60 percent of them, 722,000 people, applied in Germany. At the end of 2016, 1.1 Million applications were pending, with Germany having the highest at 602,000 pending applications.
That is a mountain of applications. I can only imagine the trepidation of waiting for the response. Thank you for your informative, non-biased, and comprehensive answer. I had no idea that migration was this high in the EU. But I'm grateful that many EU countries accepted refugees and provided them with help.
Dinesh Kumar
Comments: 1
clear