Europe’s highest number of first-time asylum applicants relative to the population have been registered in Cyprus, during the second quarter of 2018, according to Eurostat.
The most applications in total numbers were registered in Germany, France and Greece.
Compared with the population of each Member State, the highest rate of registered first-time applicants during April-June was recorded in Cyprus (1,656 applicants per million population), followed by Greece (1,521), Malta (889) and Luxembourg (703).
The majority of new asylum claims in Cyprus are from Syrians (21%) followed by India (14%).
Nicosia has recently called on Brussels to offer more practical help to Cyprus as it is fast becoming a frontline country for migration to Europe from Turkey and Lebanon.
The lowest asylum rates were observed in Slovakia (8 applicants per million population), Estonia (11), Hungary (15) and Latvia (16). In the second quarter of 2018, there were in total 267 first-time asylum applicants per million population in the EU as a whole.
During Q2, the highest number of first-time applicants were registered in Germany (with 33,700, or 25 % of total first-time applicants in the EU) and France (26,100, or 19 %), followed by Greece (16,300, or 12%) and Spain (16,200, or 12%). Cyprus represents 1% of new EU asylum claims.
Among Member States with more than 2,000 first-time asylum seekers in April-June, numbers of first-time applicants decreased most compared with the previous quarter in Italy and Austria (both -23 %) and in Belgium and Sweden (both -10 %).
In contrast, the largest increase was recorded in Spain (+85 %) and in Greece (+26 %).
At the end of June, 885,500 applications for asylum protection in the EU were under consideration by the national authorities, a decrease of 8% compared with June 2017 and less than 1% below the figure for March 2018.
With 410,600 pending applications at the end of June, or almost half of the EU total (46%), Germany had the largest share in the EU, ahead of Italy (131,900, or 15% of the total) and Greece (60,500, or 7%).
With 18,300 first-time applicants between April and June 2018, Syrians remained the largest group of persons seeking international protection in the EU.
Syrians were ahead of Afghans (9,200), Iraqis (8,400) and Venezuelans (7,600).
