Annual Report on the Situation of Asylum in the EU in 2015 (EASO)

The EASO Annual Report provides a comprehensive overview of international protection in the EU over the year, reports on developments in asylum at European level, and assesses the functioning of the Common European Asylum System.

The 2015 Annual Report on the Situation of Asylum in the European Union aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the number and nature of applications for international protection made in the EU+ (EU Member States plus Norway and Switzerland). It examines how those applications were processed and indicates important developments at EU+ and national level in order to describe the functioning of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS) in each of its key aspects.

Some of the key findings of the report are presented below.

  • In 2015, almost 1.4 million applications for international protection were made in the EU+ – the highest number since the beginning of EU-level data collection began in 2008.
  • The highest numbers of asylum applicants recorded were citizens of Syria, the Western Balkan countries combined, and Afghanistan. The main receiving countries were Germany, Hungary, Sweden, Austria and Italy.
  • At the end of 2015, the number of persons awaiting a decision on their application for international protection in the EU+passed the one million mark.
  • The crisis in Syria continued to be a key factor in the number of applications for international protection in the EU+. Applications from Syrians reached more than 380000, a threefold increase compared to 2014.
  • The number of applications from Western Balkan countries in 2015 almost doubled to 201405 applicants, the vast majority of them coming from Kosovo and Albania.
  • Afghanistan remained one of the main countries of origin of applicants last year with 196 170 applications made.
  • The first common EU effort on resettlement was agreed as 27 Member States, together with Dublin Associated States, pledged to resettle 22 504 displaced persons from outside the EU within two years.

For further information (press release, report on main findings or video), see EASO's website.

Publication Date:
Mon 01 Aug 2016
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