Eurostat: Highest number of first-time asylum applicants in Cyprus

Highest number of first-time asylum applicants relative to the population have been registered in Cyprus, while most applications in total numbers were registered in Germany, France and Greece, during the second quarter of 2018, according to Eurostat, the statistical service of the EU.

More specifically, according to Eurostat data, compared with the population of each Member State, the highest rate of registered first-time applicants during the second quarter of 2018 was recorded in Cyprus (1 656 first-time applicants per million population), followed by Greece (1 521), Malta (889) and Luxembourg (703). In contrast, the lowest 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 the second quarter of 2018, the highest number of first-time applicants was registered in Germany (with 33 700 first-time applicants, or 25 % of total first-time applicants in the EU Member States) and France (26 100, or 19 %), followed by Greece (16 300, or 12 %) and Spain (16 200, or 12%).

Among Member States with more than 2 000 first-time asylum seekers in the second quarter of 2018, 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 2018, 885 500 applications for asylum protection in the EU Member States 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 2018, 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 EU total) and Greece (60 500, or 7%).