Key figures on international protection in EU+ countries 2023

The data provided to the EUAA by the EU+ countries are provisional, and therefore may differ from validated data published by Eurostat (according to Regulation (EU) 2020/851 amending Regulation (EC) 862/2007) or national authorities. Discrepancies between different data sources are possible due to timing of data extraction, dissimilar definitions, collection methodologies. The figures generated by the EUAA should be understood as giving an estimation of the current situation in as near to real time as possible.

 

Key first-instance indicators

EU+ refers to the 27 European Union Member States, plus Norway and Switzerland.

Asylum applications include all persons who have lodged or have been included in an application for international protection as a family member in the reporting country during the reporting month.

First-time applications include all asylum applicants who have lodged (or been included in) an application for the first time in the reporting country.

Repeated applications include asylum applicants who have lodged (or been included in) a further application for international protection after a final decision has been made on a previous application in the (same) reporting country. 
This definition is broader than Eurostat's definition of subsequent applications, and the latter are a subset of repeated applications. 

First-instance decisions include all persons covered by decisions issued on grating or not granting EU-regulated international protection status (refugee or subsidiary protection) following a first time or repeated application for international protection in the first instance determination process. 

The EU+ recognition rate includes EU-regulated forms of protection (refugee status and subsidiary protection) and excludes national protection forms (humanitarian reasons). It is calculated by dividing the number of positive first instance decisions (granting refugee status or subsidiary protection) by the total number of decisions issued. 

Stock of pending cases includes all cases for which an asylum application has been lodged and are under consideration by the national authority responsible for the first instance determination of the application for international protection (until the first instance decision has been issued) at the end of the reference period (i.e. last day of the reference month). It refers to the “stock” of applications for which decisions at first instance are still pending on the last working day of the reporting period. 

Withdrawn applications include all persons covered by decisions taken in the reference period following the withdrawal of the application for international protection during the first instance determination process. An application can be withdrawn either explicitly (where the applicant informs officially the determining body of their wish to discontinue their application) or implicitly (where an applicant can no longer be located and is judged to have abandoned the procedure). 

Resettlement arrivals include all persons effectively resettled in a EU+ country. Resettlement and humanitarian admission are closely related and therefore both within the scope of the data and information collection. They involve the selection and transfer of persons in need of international protection from a third country to an EU+ country where they are permitted to reside. Relocations and transfers of persons which are already beneficiaries of international protection within the EU+ are excluded.