European Asian Agency: Albania, Kosovo top asylum demand list

The European Asian Agency says in its newly released annual report that 7325 citizens from Albania submitted asylum applications to a European Union country during 2024, albinfo.ch conveys.

Citizens from Albania and Kosovo evidently top the list of asylum applications from other Western Balkan countries.

Referenced to European Agency for Asylum data, 6791 citizens from Kosovo sought asylum in Europe, while 3506 requests were submitted from Serbia 3227, from Bosnia and Herzegovina 1432 and from Montenegro 337 requests.

The number of asylum requests of Albanian citizens in European countries marked decline compared to the year 1923, where according to data there were 9,145 Albanian citizens who have applied for asylum in one of the European Union states.

France follows to be the most popular country for Albania's residents to seek asylum and then ranks Germany followed by the two neighbouring countries, Italy and Greece.

The European Agency for Asylum report says that in 2024 European Union countries received about one million asylum applications for the third consecutive year.

Meanwhile, according to data, by the end of 2024, there were about 4.4 million temporary protection beneficiaries in European Union countries who had fled Ukraine, where half of them were hosted in Germany and Poland, while Cekya hosted the most beneficial in relation to the population, reports VOA.

The report's data notes a slight decline in asylum applications compared to 2023, while the Syrians were the most common group seeking protection in European Union countries, although during 2024 they submitted fewer applications than in 2023 following the collapse of the Assad regime.