Cyprus saw the second largest rate of new asylum seeker applications per million of the population in the EU behind Austria, according to the latest Eurostat data.
First-time asylum applications increased by 10% in the EU last October compared to the month before.
In October 2022, 99,175 first-time asylum applicants (non-EU citizens) applied for international protection in the EU, 8,630 more people than in the previous month, an increase of 10%.
Compared with October 2021 (59,870), there was a 66% increase in requests.
For the number of subsequent applicants (people who reapplied for asylum after a decision had been taken on a previous application), the opposite happened, with total numbers decreasing.
In October, there were 6,380 subsequent applicants, indicating a 3% decrease (-185 subsequent applicants) compared with September.
Compared with October 2021, there was a 5% drop.
Like the previous two months, in October, Syrians were the largest group seeking asylum (18,420 first-time applicants). They were followed by Afghans (13,695) and Turks (6,770).
Following Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine, there was a large increase in Ukrainian first-time asylum applicants (from 2,370 in February to 12,890 in March 2022).
Still, the numbers decreased monthly, from 1,510 in April to 950 in October.
This is also because people fleeing Ukraine benefit from temporary protection.
The number of first-time asylum applicants with Russian citizenship ranked 13th, with 1,960 applications, 650 more than in September.
Germany
Since the beginning of 2022, Germany has been the Member State reporting the highest number of first-time asylum applicants in the EU.
In October, Germany received 24 910 first-time applicants, accounting for 25% of the total. Germany was followed by Austria (17,745, 18%), France (13,680, 14%), Spain (10,905, 11%), and Italy (8,385, 8%).
These five countries together accounted for three-quarters (76%) of all first-time asylum applicants in the EU.
Cyprus
In the EU, there were 222 first-time asylum applicants per million population in October.
Compared with the population of each EU country (on 1 January 2022), the highest rate of registered first-time applicants in October was recorded in Austria (1,976 applicants per million population), followed by Cyprus (1,819) and Croatia (505).
By contrast, the lowest rate was observed in Hungary (0.3).
Unaccompanied minors
In October, 5,225 unaccompanied minors applied for asylum for the first time in the EU, up by 6% compared with September (4,950).
Most unaccompanied minors who lodged asylum applications in October came from Afghanistan (2,315), Syria (1,440), Somalia (210), Turkey (140) and Eritrea (135).
The EU countries that received the highest numbers of asylum applications from unaccompanied minors were again Austria (2,055), Germany (800), the Netherlands (590), Belgium (530) and Bulgaria (445).
All these five countries saw the number of requests increase except for Austria, which saw a marginal decrease (-15 requests).
Due to temporary derogations, data on unaccompanied minor asylum applicants in France, Cyprus and Poland are unavailable.
