Along with the number of migrants, the number of asylum seekers in the European Union also fell significantly last year - by a third, to the lowest level since 2013. Both figures correlate although they are by no means identical.

While the EU border protection authority Frontex reported 124,000 illegal border crossings, the EU Asylum Authority (EASO) recorded 485,000 asylum applications in its new annual report.

Thomas Gutschker

Political correspondent for the European Union, NATO and the Benelux countries based in Brussels.

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    On the one hand, it shows the number of unreported cases of people who were not registered at an external border.

    On the other hand, migrants not only submit their application in the country of arrival, as provided for in EU asylum law, but also in the country of their choice.

    For most people it was Germany and France again last year.

    This trend towards secondary migration continued even under corona conditions.

    In fact, two thirds of all applications were received from these two countries and Spain.

    Spain, on the other hand, does not belong to the top group because it is so close to North Africa.

    Rather, as in 2019, most asylum seekers entered the country legally, by plane from Venezuela and Colombia.

    As a rule, they received humanitarian protection.

    Very different recognition rates

    The main countries of arrival, Greece and Italy, are well behind the top three in the asylum statistics; their share is only eight and just under six percent. This explains why Berlin and Paris reject Italian demands for migrants to be taken over. Although the influx to Lampedusa has increased in recent weeks, the statistics speak for themselves: Italy is allowing most asylum seekers to move north.

    This effect has even increased because of the pandemic, as the information on so-called secondary migration shows. According to EU asylum law, the member states are allowed to transfer applicants who have entered the country via another country - but only in the first six months after entry. Last year, the number of such applications for repatriation fell just as sharply as the number of asylum applications overall. But the number of actual repatriations fell even further, to half of the previous year. The responsible countries often asserted health restrictions. Germany in particular was left with a large proportion of applicants.

    As in the previous year, most of the applicants came from Syria, Afghanistan, Venezuela, Colombia and Iraq. More than half of the Syrians and Iraqis moved to Germany, as did the largest group of Turks, Nigerians and Somalis. It is remarkable how much the recognition rates vary across Europe. While only one percent of Afghans received protection in Bulgaria, it was 98 percent in Switzerland (which participates in the Schengen area). The values ​​for Turks and Venezuelans fluctuated similarly. This is an incentive for applicants to choose their target country. However, the asylum authorities rightly point out that, despite its high recognition rate, Switzerland only had relatively few applicants.

    The overall trend in the protection rate remains unchanged. Only 31 percent of all applicants received protection status regulated by EU law, i.e. recognition as a refugee or subsidiary protection. Another 11 percent received humanitarian protection in accordance with national regulations. Conversely, this means: 58 percent of the applicants could not claim any persecution and usually came across the Mediterranean for economic reasons. Two thirds of all applicants were men, one third women and ten percent unaccompanied minors.

    The EU asylum authority registered more than 40 percent of newcomers in 2020; it now supports all five arrival countries on the Mediterranean. The employees conducted 18,000 interviews, increasingly via video chat due to the pandemic. The authority will be strengthened in the future. On Tuesday, the Council of Member States and the European Parliament agreed on an extended mandate for the agency, which has been operating for ten years. It will have a pool of 500 national civil servants who can quickly rush to aid a country if necessary. So far this has only been possible on an ad hoc basis.

    In addition, the authority is to keep an eye on the member states and report on how they are implementing EU asylum provisions. For example, returns to Greece fail because the country does not meet minimum standards. However, the five countries of arrival, known as “Club Med”, have imposed an important restriction: this control mechanism will only come into force once the entire asylum system has been reformed.