4 minutes agoIn April, 87 percent less asylum applications in the EU
Periskopi(6 years ago)
(6 years ago)The number of asylum applications in Europe dropped by 87 percent in April compared with the beginning of the year because of the movement restrictions due to the new coronary pandemic, the European Asian Office (EASO) announced today. Because of closing EU external borders and restrictions on movement [...]
Due to the closing of EU external borders and the restrictions of movement within the Schengen zone, the number of asylum applications has dropped significantly after it dropped 43% in March.
“Only 8,730 asylum applications were registered in April in EU member states Norway and Switzerland, which is the lowest since 2008, and corresponds to a large 87 per cent drop from pre-COVID-19 levels in January and February”, the report says.
However, this number is almost ten times higher than the illegal crossings of European borders in the same period, of which, according to Frontex, were 900.
This shows the need to protect asylum seekers even despite the temporary suspension of recording these apps in some countries.
The major decline comes from the fact that Latin American citizens Venezuela and Colombia, above all, could not come to European territory in April: Venezuelan demands dropped from 5013 in January to just 80 in April. There were 64 requests from Colombia from 5252 in January.
The EASO expects a slight increase in the number of asylum applications in the months following the easing of isolation measures, and this is already felt according to the first data for May.
