According to Eurostat, 1.048.880 first-time asylum applicants were registered last year in the European Union, an increase of 20.1 % compared to 2022. Countries neighboring Belgium followed this upward trend: in France, there was an increase of 5.5 % (145.095 in 2023 compared to 137.510 in 2022), in the Netherlands by 7.6 % (38.185 in 2023 compared to 35.500), and in Germany even by 51.1 % (329.035 in 2023 compared to 217.735 in 2022). In addition to Germany, a number of countries in Southern Europe registered many more first-time asylum applicants: Greece (+ 98.8 %), Spain (+ 38.2 %), Italy (+ 69.1 %).

Belgium did not follow this trend. In 2023 there were 29.260 first-time asylum applicants, compared to 32.100 in 2022. This represents a decrease of 8.8 %. The number of first-time asylum applicants has fallen sharply in Austria. There were 55.605 first-time asylum applicants registered there last year, 49.4 % less than in 2022. The number of first-time asylum applicants registered in Denmark has also fallen sharply, by 47.4 %.

For further details, please look at Eurostat data relating to asylum applicants by type, citizenship, age and sex - annual aggregated data and read the press release from the VRT (in Dutch) or the Brussels Times (in English).