(ANSA-AFP) - BRUSSELS, SEP 5 - The number of migrants lodging
asylum applications in the EU has jumped 28 percent in the first
half of this year compared to the same period last year,
official figures released Tuesday showed. Between January and
the end of June this year, there were 519,000 such requests made
in the 27-nation bloc and associated countries Switzerland and
Norway, the European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA) said.
The number of migrants lodging asylum applications in the EU
has jumped 28 percent in the first half of this year compared to
the same period last year, official figures released Tuesday
showed. Between January and the end of June this year, there
were 519,000 such requests made in the 27-nation bloc and
associated countries Switzerland and Norway, the European Union
Agency for Asylum (EUAA) said. That puts the EU on track to
receive more than one million asylum-seekers this year -- the
biggest number since 2015-2016 when it saw a huge influx, mainly
Syrians fleeing the war in their country. In 2015, the bloc
received 1.35 million asylum requests, then in 2016 there were
1.25 million more applications. Numbers dropped in 2017 after
the EU did a deal with Turkey to have it clamp down on irregular
border crossings, and during the height of the Covid pandemic in
2020 and 2021 when travel restrictions were in place. Numbers
have since rebounded, with 2022 seeing a 53-percent rise in
applications, putting many EU countries "under pressure," the
EUAA said. (ANSA-AFP).
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