asylum applications

• Italy
• Spain
• Syria

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees has urged Germany to show continued leadership on refugee policy after Angela Merkel steps down, as a new report shows that Germany is the top country for asylum claims in Europe.

• Belgium

The European Union Agency for Asylum is intended to make the bloc's asylum procedures more efficient and uniform.

• Afghanistan
• Pakistan
• Iraq

The French Office of Immigration and Integration (OFII) organizes street outreach activities for homeless migrants as well as in migrant reception centers. The aim is to encourage those who have been refused asylum or those without papers to return to their countries of origin.

• Italy

Close to 27,000 asylum requests were filed in Italy in 2020 – 39% fewer than in 2019, according to the Italian Refugee Council. Roughly three in four asylum requests examined by Italian authorities were rejected.

• Greece
• France
• Italy

Far fewer people applied for asylum in the European Union in 2020 than in previous years. Germany, Spain and France saw the highest number of applications; Cyprus the most per capita.

• United Kingdom

The UK Home Secretary has announced the details of her new plan for immigration. She said it would be faster, fairer and allow Britain to help the vulnerable and those in need, while cracking down on criminality. Critics have accused her of creating a two-tier system that is anything but fair.

• Serbia
• Bosnia & Herzegovina
• Croatia

The number of individuals seeking asylum in Austria has risen by roughly 10% in 2020. During the same period, the overall number of people seeking protection in the EU dropped by 31%.

• Germany

The German interior ministry says that around half of adults who came to Germany seeking asylum in 2020 failed to present documents to prove their name, nationality or date of birth.

• Afghanistan
• Syria

Asylum applications in the European Union dropped by 31% last year and fell to a record low. The European Asylum Support Office (EASO) attributed the decline mainly to coronavirus-related travel restrictions.

• Germany

In 2018, Germany's asylum office BAMF came under fire for supposedly wrongly issuing numerous positive asylum decisions. Now, German courts have ruled in favor of 66 refugees whose positive asylum decisions had been revoked.

• Denmark

The Danish prime minister wants to see an end to asylum requests in the country. The Social Democrat leader made the comment in Parliament, reinforcing Denmark’s restrictive stance on immigration.

• Germany

The number of asylum applications in Germany continues to decrease. According to the German interior ministry, there were over 30% fewer applications last year than 2019.