Asylum decisions in the EU27 EU Member States granted protection to 84 100 asylum seekers in 2011

STAT/12/96

19 June 2012

Asylum decisions in the EU27
EU Member States granted protection to 84 100 asylum seekers in 2011

The EU27 Member States granted protection to 84 100 asylum seekers in 2011 compared with 75 800 in 2010. The largest groups of beneficiaries of protection status1 in the EU27 were citizens of Afghanistan (13 300 persons or 16% of the total number of persons granted protection status), Iraq (9 000 or 11%) and Somalia (8 900 or 11%).

These data2 on the results of asylum decisions in the EU27 are released by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union on the occasion of the World Refugee Day3 on 20 June 2012.

One quarter of EU27 asylum decisions at the first instance resulted in protection status

In 2011, 365 600 decisions on asylum applications4 were made in the EU27, of which 237 400 were first instance decisions and 128 200 final decisions on appeal. Decisions made at the first instance5 resulted in 59 500 persons being granted protection status, while a further 24 600 received protection status on appeal6. In total, of the 84 100 persons who were granted protection status in 2011, 42 700 persons were granted refugee status, 29 400 subsidiary protection and 12 000 authorisation to stay for humanitarian reasons. In addition, the EU27 Member States received 4 100 resettled refugees7.

The rate of recognition of asylum applicants, i.e. the share of positive decisions in the total number of decisions, was 25% for first instance decisions, split between refugee and subsidiary protection status (21%) and humanitarian status (4%). For final decisions on appeal the recognition rate was 19%, again split between refugee and subsidiary protection status (17%) and humanitarian status (2%). It should be noted that, while both refugee and subsidiary protection status are defined by EU law, humanitarian status is granted on the basis of national legislation relating to international protection.

More than three quarters of grants of protection status in the EU27 made in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Sweden, the Netherlands and Italy

In 2011, the highest number of persons granted protection status was registered in the United Kingdom (14 400), followed by Germany (13 000), France (10 700), Sweden (10 600), the Netherlands (8 400) and Italy (7 500). These Member States accounted for more than three quarters of all those granted protection status in the EU27.

Afghans, Iraqis and Somalis largest groups granted protection status in the EU27

Afghans were the single largest group of persons granted protection status in the EU27. Of the 13 300 Afghans granted protection status in the EU27, 3 100 were recorded in Germany, 2 700 in Sweden, 1 800 in Austria, 1 400 in the Netherlands and 1 000 in the United Kingdom. Of the 9 000 Iraqis granted protection, 3 300 were registered in Germany, 1 400 in the Netherlands and 1 200 in Belgium, and of the 8 900 Somalis, 2 600 were in Sweden and 2 400 in the Netherlands.

Decisions on asylum applications in 2011

Data are rounded to the nearest five.

0 means less than 3.

: Not available

- Not applicable

* The total number of decisions refers to the number of administrative decisions rather than the number of individuals.

** First instance and final decisions on appeal.

*** Data refer to first instance decisions only.

Largest groups granted protection status, 2011

Data are rounded to the nearest five.

: No data presented for those countries of citizenship where the number of positive decisions was 2 or less during the reference period.

* Persons with this citizenship granted protection status as a percentage of the total number of persons granted protection in this country.

** First instance decisions only

*** Kosovo under UN Security Council Resolution 1244.

**** A stateless person is someone who is not recognized as a citizen of any state.

Recognition rates, 2011

Data are rounded to the nearest five.

0 means less than 3.

: Not available

- Not applicable

* Rate of recognition is the share of positive decisions (first instance or final on appeal) in the total number of decisions at the given stage. In this calculation, the exact number of decisions has been used instead of the rounded numbers presented in this table.

• Protection status includes three different categories of protection:

Person granted refugee status means a person covered by a decision granting refugee status, taken by administrative or judicial bodies during the reference period. Refugee status means status as defined in Art.2(d) of Directive 2004/83/EC within the meaning of Art.1 of the Geneva Convention relating to the Status of Refugees of 28 July 1951, as amended by the New York Protocol of 31 January 1967. According to the Art.2(c) of that Directive refugee means a third country national who, owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership of a particular social group, is outside the country of nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself or herself of the protection of that country, or a stateless person, who, being outside of the country of former habitual residence for the same reasons as mentioned above, is unable or, owing to such fear, unwilling to return to it.

Person granted subsidiary protection status means a person covered by a decision granting subsidiary protection status, taken by administrative or judicial bodies during the reference period. Subsidiary protection status means status as defined in Art.2(f) of Directive 2004/83/EC. According to the Art.2(e) of that Directive person eligible for subsidiary protection means a third country national or a stateless person who does not qualify as a refugee but in respect of whom substantial grounds have been shown for believing that the person concerned, if returned to his or her country of citizenship, or in the case of a stateless person, to his or her country of former habitual residence, would face a real risk of suffering serious harm and is unable, or, owing to such risk, unwilling to avail himself or herself of the protection of that country.

Person granted authorisation to stay for humanitarian reasons means a person covered by a decision granting authorisation to stay for humanitarian reasons under national law concerning international protection, taken by administrative or judicial bodies during the reference period. It includes persons who are not eligible for international protection as currently defined in the first stage legal instruments, but are nonetheless protected against removal under the obligations that are imposed on all Member States by international refugee or human rights instruments or on the basis of principles flowing from such instruments. Examples of such categories include persons who are not removable on ill health grounds and unaccompanied minors.

• The data in this release are provided to Eurostat by Ministries of the Interior or Justice, or immigration agencies, of the Member States. These data are supplied by Member States according to the provisions of Article 4 of the Regulation (EC) 862/2007 of 11 July 2007 on Community statistics on migration and international protection.

• For more information see:

http://www.unrefugees.org/site/c.lfIQKSOwFqG/b.7084345/k.1569/World_Refugee_Day_2012/apps/s/link.asp

• A decision on an asylum application means a decision on an application for international protection as defined in Art.2(g) of Council Directive 2004/83/EC, i.e. including requests for refugee status or for subsidiary protection status, irrespective of whether the application was lodged on arrival at border, or from inside the country, and irrespective of whether the person entered the territory legally (e.g. as a tourist) or illegally.

• First instance decision means a decision made in response to an asylum application at the first instance level of the asylum procedure.

• Final decision on appeal means a decision granted at the final instance of administrative/judicial asylum procedure and which results from the appeal lodged by the asylum seeker rejected in the preceding stage of the procedure. As the asylum procedures and the numbers/levels of decision making bodies differ between Member States, the true final instance may be, according to the national legislation and administrative procedures, a decision of the highest national court. However, the applied methodology defines that 'final decisions' should refer to what is effectively a 'final decision' in the vast majority of all cases: i.e. that all normal routes of appeal have been exhausted.

• Resettled refugees means persons who have been granted an authorisation to reside in a Member State within the framework of a national or Community resettlement scheme. Resettlement means the transfer of third-country nationals or stateless persons, on the basis of their need for international protection and a durable solution, to a Member State where they are permitted to reside with a secure legal status. Data relate to resettled persons who have actually arrived into the territory of the Member State.