Asylum seekers in Paris on è February 2021 -

Laurence Geai / SIPA

Asylum applications in the European Union fell by 31% in 2020, to their lowest level since 2013, "mainly due to movement restrictions" linked to the pandemic, the European Support Office said on Thursday. in asylum matters (EASO).

According to data from this agency, which covers the 27 EU countries plus Norway and Switzerland, 461,300 applications were filed in 2020, compared to 671,200 the previous year.

This "considerable decrease (-31%) reflects the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and emergency measures", explains EASO in a press release.

More unaccompanied minors, fewer Iraqis

Around 4% of cases in 2020 were submitted by applicants posing as unaccompanied minors, an increase of 1% from the previous year.

The main countries of origin of asylum seekers remain unchanged.

The Syrians are those who have filed the most applications (64,540; -9% compared to 2019) and represent 14% of applications.

Next come the Afghans with 48,578 requests (-16%), the Venezuelans (30,643; -32%), the Colombians (29,438; -9%) and the Iraqis (18,167; -40%).

Fewer pending cases

Despite the pandemic, the national authorities in charge of examining asylum requests "have maintained roughly the same level of first instance decisions as in 2019", according to the agency.

Some 521,000 decisions were rendered at first instance in 2020, a figure that exceeds the number of applications for the first time since 2017. The number of pending cases fell by 17%.

At the end of 2020, it was 412,600 for first instance decisions.

The rate of recognition of refugee status remained stable, at 32% of applications in 2020, “despite strong fluctuations during the year”.

Syrians (84%), Eritreans (80%) and Yemenis (75%) benefit the most from this protection, while the rate is only 2% for Colombians and 3% for Venezuelans.

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