Over the last two years, EU+ countries (EU Member States plus Norway and Switzerland) have experienced increased asylum applications with notable surges in the autumns of 2022 and 2023. This trend peaked in October 2023 with 123,000 applications lodged, a level reminiscent of the refugee crisis in 2015-2016.  In fact, by the end of 2023, some 1.1 million applications had been lodged in the EU+ marking an 18% increase from the previous year, and the most for seven years.

In addition to these applications for international protection, in April 2024 around 4.35 million persons displaced from Ukraine were  receiving temporary protection, significantly adding to the overall number of individuals arriving in the EU+ with protection needs. For more details on forced displacement from Ukraine, read the latest Voices in Europe, which highlights prevailing themes based on the personal testimonies of over 1,500 respondents.

These concurrent trends – the surge in asylum applications and the influx of displaced persons from Ukraine – are exerting immense strain on the EU+ asylum and reception systems. National authorities are being pushed to their limits as they strive to accommodate and safeguard those in need.

The winter months of 2023-2024 saw a general decline in asylum applications, continuing into April 2024 with only 86,000 applications received in the EU+. This decrease is typical for the winter months which usually deter journeys towards the EU+, especially those involving dangerous sea crossings.

In April 2024, Syrians, consistently at the forefront of asylum applications in the EU+, lodged 12,000 applications, which is a slight increase compared to the previous month but down by a significant margin compared to the seven-year peak of October 2023. For the last few years, Syrians have lodged applications in seasonal trends peaking each autumn. For more information, read the latest EUAA reports on Syria, its Security situation and Country Guidance which focusses on the key elements of qualification for international protection.  

Afghans remained the second largest nationality group despite continuing to lodge fewer applications in April 2024. Since the autumn of 2023 more Afghans have been seeking asylum in Greece but this trend appears to be on the decline. Read an EUAA Country Focus report on the general security and humanitarian situation in Afghanistan, plus Country Guidance which focusses on the key elements of qualification for international protection.

In the autumn of 2023, Turkish nationals suddenly sought international protection in the EU+ in unprecedented numbers such that for a short time they ranked second among all citizenships applying for asylum. However, this Germany-centred surge, turned out to be short-lived because in the months that followed far fewer Turks sought protection in the EU+. In April 2024, Turks lodged just 4,100 applications, fewer compared to the aforementioned peak and fewer even compared to April 2023.

Since October last year, Haitians have been lodging more applications in the EU+, almost exclusively in France. This trend increased further in April 2024, when Haitians lodged 1,200 applications for asylum which is the most ever recorded and up nearly four-fold compared to a year previously. Amidst the rapidly deteriorating security, human rights and humanitarian situation in Haiti, UNHCR recently issued new guidance on international protection for Haitians. However, nearly half of all applications recently lodged in the EU+ were repeated applications, which implies that the applicants were not newly arrived from their home country.

In recent months there has been a well-documented surge of boat arrivals in the Canary Islands. Indeed, for the period January – April 2024, Frontex reported the most detections of illegal border-crossings on the Western African route since records began. Highlighting the scale of this trend, nearly as many arrivals were registered in April as in the first three months of the year combined. According to these data, Malian and Senegalese nationals were the most commonly detected, leading to a commensurate increase in the number of asylum applications being lodged: in April 2024, Malians lodged a non-trivial 2,200 applications for asylum in the EU+ which is the most on record and up five-fold compared to a year earlier, while Senegalese lodged 1,200 applications which is up three-fold over the same period. Since these arrivals were in the Canary Islands, the increased asylum caseload was reported by Spain, but it is worth mentioning that applications for both of these citizenships continued to be lodged also in Italy and France.  

Spain has been a focal point for a distinct asylum trend separate from irregular migration. For a while now, Venezuelans and Colombians have been seeking protection in Spain in large numbers. These Latin American nationals, who benefit from visa-free access to the Schengen area, continued to lodge significant numbers of asylum applications in the EU+ in April 2024: 6,200 Venezuelan applications and 4,800 Colombian. Most of these were submitted in Spain, accounting for 92% of Venezuelan and 82% of Colombian applications, with nearly all being first-time applications, indicating that the applicants were newly arrived in the EU+. Additionally, applicants from Peru have been seeking asylum in notable numbers, with 2,400 applications in April 2024. Unlike Venezuelans and Colombians, more Peruvians are now applying in Italy (55%) rather than in Spain (42%), to such an extent that they were the number two citizenship lodging applications in Italy in April. In response to challenges linked to visa-free travel and the high numbers of unfounded asylum applications, the European Commission proposed strengthening the visa suspension mechanism in October 2023.

Spain has also started taking steps towards regularising half a million undocumented migrants who have been living in Spain since 2021, most of whom are from Africa and Latin America. The law will not only allow them to live and work in Spain legally but also enable them to pay taxes, contribute to social security, and access healthcare, education and other public services. Read more here.

To eliminate month-to-month fluctuations, the above chart offers a comprehensive overview of the asylum application trends of the top 20 nationalities in April 2024, over the last 12 months (yellow) in comparison to the preceding 12 months (blue). Syrians and Afghans lodged the most applications for asylum during both of these time periods. However, Syrian applications saw a considerable increase (+31%), whereas Afghan applications declined by 19%.

Most citizenships in the chart exhibited an upward change in their application numbers, which is to some extent a statistical artefact because nationalities with declining trends are more likely to fall out of the top 20, while those with increasing trends tend to rise into the ranking. Nevertheless, it is notable that Malians, Senegalese and Haitians all lodged more than twice as many applications in the 12 months leading up to April 2024.

In contrast, Tunisians, Pakistanis and Afghans lodged applications that fell by significant margins between the two reporting periods (-34%, -23% and -19% respectively).

In April 2024, Germany remained the top destination for asylum seekers in the EU+, receiving 19,000 applications or 23% of the total. Spain followed closely with 16,000 applications (18% of the total), while Italy was at a near-record high of 14,000 applications (17%). Despite Germany's historical lead receiving the most asylum applications, it has experienced a decline in recent months, whereas the opposite has been occurring in Italy where record numbers of applications were lodged in March 2024. Other differences between the main receiving countries include the natures of the caseloads. For example, there is a remarkable lack of overlap between the citizenships who tend to apply in these three main receiving countries: in Germany more than half of all applications were lodged by Syrians, Afghans and Turks; in Spain more than two thirds were lodged by Venezuelans, Colombians and Malians; and in Italy 40% of all applications were lodged by Bangladeshis, Peruvians and Egyptians.

Adding to localised trends, some citizenships tend to lodge the vast majority of their applications in a single EU+ country. In April 2024, these included: Venezuelans who lodged 92%, Colombians who lodged 82%, and Malians who lodged 68% of their applications in Spain, as well as Bangladeshis who lodged 82% of their applications in Italy, and Haitians who lodged an astounding 99% of their applications in France.

Uniquely among EU+ countries, Hungary received fewer than 5 applications for asylum in April 2024. Controversially, third-country nationals seeking protection in Hungary can only apply after submitting a declaration of intent at a Hungarian embassy in a non-EU country. In December 2020, the European Court of Justice held that Hungary failed to comply with the rules of EU law on procedures for granting international protection and returning illegally staying third-country nationals. In June 2024, the court re-confirmed that the Hungarian practice continues to infringe on EU law.

Evaluating which EU+ countries tend to receive the most applications for asylum is important but to some extent a simple like-for-like comparison is not appropriate because the EU+ countries vary wildly in terms of the size and capacity of their asylum and reception systems. As a rough measure of their overall capacity and a more nuanced estimation of the pressure exerted on national authorities, this chart illustrates the number of asylum applications lodged per million inhabitants (Eurostat population data).

In April 2024, Cyprus, with a small population size of around 921,000, received 1,500 asylum applications. This amounts to a rate of 1,700 applications per million population, or 1 application for every 600 inhabitants. In contrast, Germany reported many more applications for asylum (circa 19,000); however, given its larger population of 84 million, the German rate was lower at 229 applications per million inhabitants, or 1 application per 4,400 inhabitants. Italy and neighbouring Austria, while receiving very different numbers of applications per se (14,000 and 2,200, respectively) actually received very similar numbers of applications per capita: each just above 240 applications per million population.

Taking the whole EU+ into consideration: its population of 463 million and 86,000 asylum applications received in April 2024, converts into 185 applications per million population, or about 1 application for every 5,400 persons.

In addition to asylum applications, as of the end of April 2024, there were also 4.4 million persons benefiting from temporary protection in the EU+. This protection is based on a 2001 Directive which was triggered for the first time in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 with the aim of offering quick and effective assistance to people displaced to the EU+. At the end of April 2024, half of all beneficiaries of temporary protection were either in Germany (1.3 million) or Poland (1 million). For context and to allow comparisons with the inflow of asylum applications, the chart above can also be used to illustrate the number of beneficiaries of temporary protection per capita being hosted in each EU+ country. In Czechia, there were about 32,000 beneficiaries per million inhabitants, which amounts to one beneficiary for every 31 inhabitants, followed by Lithuania, Poland and Estonia (at approximately 24,000 – 27,000 beneficiaries per million, or 1 beneficiary for every 37 – 42 inhabitants).

Recently the European Commission proposed to extend the temporary protection for people fleeing Russia's aggression against Ukraine for another year, from 5 March 2025 to 4 March 2026. Read more here.