3.1.4.2. Beneficiaries of international protection and rejected asylum seekers per capita

The estimated pressure from beneficiaries of international protection (see Figure 6, centre circle) includes people who received decisions granting refugee status or subsidiary protection at first instance in 2023. Pressure from this category of people intensified from 2022 in most EU+ countries. The increase was the largest in Cyprus and Estonia (see Figure 7, middle panel) with the highest number of positive decisions per capita on record, and notable in Austria, Greece and Switzerland.

When considering the administrative costs generated from rejected asylum cases per capita (i.e. people who received negative decisions or national forms of protection at first instance in 2023) (see Figure 6, inner circle), Cyprus again stood out as facing the highest pressure. The country’s negative decisions per capita in 2023 were the highest on record, generating pressure similar in scale to that from asylum applications received per capita.xv At lower levels, Spain, Austria and Greece (in descending order) also faced pressure from this category. 

Other countries that issued a relatively high number of negative decisions per capita in 2023 included France, Germany, Malta, Belgium and Ireland. In contrast, Croatia, Hungary, Portugal and Slovakia were at the other end of the spectrum.

Additional factors add pressure on asylum and reception systems

Figure 7. Top 10 countries receiving the most asylum applications per capita, 2023 compared to 2022, and Top 10 countries issuing the most positive and negative first instance decisions per capita, 2023 compared to 2022

• xvRepatriations of rejected asylum seekers rose to 11,000 in 2023. Info Migrants, Cyprus turns tide on migrant arrival trend, 22 December 2023.
  https://www.infomigrants.net/en/post/54095/cyprus-turns-tide-on-migrant….