4.4.7. Decisions issued on first instance asylum applications

An asylum application is considered to be closed at first instance once a decision has been issued by a national authority. According to Regulation (EU) 2020/851 amending Regulation (EC) 862/2007,470  there are five decision outcomes that should be reported by EU+ countries:

Figure 13. Applications for international protection and first instance decisions in EU+ countries, Q1 2021–Q4 2022

As in previous years, around one-half of decisions on first instance asylum applications were issued to 18-to-34-year-old applicants. Over one-quarter of all decisions were issued to minors. In total, women and girls received one-third of all decisions.

Three EU+ countries issued nearly two-thirds of all first instance decisions in 2022: Germany (31%), France (20%) and Spain (13%). These were followed by Italy (8%), Austria (6%) and Greece (6%) (see Figure 14).

Ireland, Estonia, Iceland, Latvia and Slovenia issued the most first instance decisions on record. Austria and Germany issued the most first instance decisions since 2017, the Netherlands and Slovakia the most since 2016, Bulgaria since 2015 and Poland since 2009.

The increase in Germany was predominantly due to decisions issued to Afghan nationals. But the number of decisions also rose for other main nationalities, as seen for applicants from Syria, Iraq and Türkiye (in descending order). In addition, nationals of Colombia, Georgia, Moldova and Yemen received the most decisions on record in Germany.

For the second consecutive year, Austria issued roughly twice as many decisions than in the previous year, especially to applicants from India, Morocco, Pakistan, Syria, Tunisia, and, to a lesser extent, Afghanistan and Somalia.

First instance decision-making in Spain also rose from 2021, along with the rising number of applications. Nonetheless, decisions remained lower than during the peak in 2020. Spain continued to issue the majority of decisions to Venezuelans, Colombians and several other Latin American nationalities.

Estonia, which usually issues fewer than 200 decisions annually, reached 2,200 decisions in 2022, almost entirely because of applications lodged by Ukrainian nationals.

In contrast, first instance decision-making by France decreased slightly compared to 2021, despite rising applications. France issued fewer decisions to multiple nationalities, including applicants from Bangladesh, Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire and Nigeria. Nonetheless, decisions for some main citizenships – namely Albanians, Georgians and Turks – increased.

Despite increases in decisions on first instance applications between 2021 and 2022, the vast majority of EU+ countries had new applications outweighing the number of decisions issued, adding pressure to national asylum systems. Exceptionally, Greece issued more first instance decisions than it received applications in 2022.

Figure 15. First instance decisions in EU+ countries by Top 10 countries of origin receiving decisions, 2022 compared to 2021

Nationals of Türkiye (25,000), Bangladesh (21,000) and Georgia (19,000) received the most decisions on record, mainly in Germany and France for Georgians and Turks and in France and Italy for Bangladeshis. Decisions issued to citizens of Afghanistan, Egypt, Georgia, India, Mali, Morocco, North Macedonia, Tunisia and Venezuela increased at least by one-half from the previous year.xxxix

While increases in decisions were widely reported, a few citizenships had fewer decisions in 2022 than in 2021, namely applicants from Colombia, Côte d’Ivoire, Eritrea, Guinea, Iran, Moldova, Nigeria and Russia.xl  In fact, decision-making on applications submitted by nationals of Iran and Russia decreased for the fifth consecutive year.