The European Union saw over a million over a million asylum applications lodged by foreigners for the second straight year in 2024, the international migration regulator disclosed this week.
The annual report from the European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA) revealed that EU nations, as well as Norway and Switzerland, had 1,014,420 requests for asylum last year. This marked the second year in a row that over a million requests were filed, 1,143,437 recorded in 2023, Euronews reports.
According to the EUAA, some 48 per cent of asylum applicants came from countries with historically low chances of qualifying for refugee status, perhaps indicating an economic motive behind their attempts to gain residency in Europe.
Meanwhile, figures from the EU’s Frontex border agency showed 239,000 illegal border crossings into the bloc, meaning that around one in four asylum applicants likely entered the bloc illegally.
In terms of countries of origin for supposed asylum claims, Syria remained in the top place with 151,000, followed by Afghanistan at 87,382, Venezuela (73,187), Turkey (55,705), and Colombia (51,529).
Germany, with its large economy and generous welfare schemes for migrants, remained the top destination for migrants seeking asylum last year, with over a quarter of a million filed at 237,000. Spain stood in second at 165,767, followed by Italy at 158,867, France (158,730), Greece (73,688), Belgium (39,206) and the Netherlands (33,437).
In contrast, Hungary only saw 29 asylum applications last year, in a demonstration of the strict border controls enacted by the conservative-populist government of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in Budapest.
For protecting his nation’s borders, Orbán has long been at odds with Brussels, which has imposed millions in fines against Hungary, subtracting from reallocated EU funds.
The issue of mass migration into Europe has become a key driver of elections, with anti-mass migration parties seeing wins in recent years in countries like the Netherlands and populist parties making significant gains in countries like France and Germany.
A survey from YouGov conducted last month found that majorities in Britain, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Sweden all believe that immigration has been too high into their countries over the past decade.
This was particularly true for Spaniards and Germans, with 80 and 81 per cent of their respective populations saying that levels of been too high.
Meanwhile, a majority of respondents in the seven nations surveyed felt that their governments had performed very or fairly badly in terms of controlling immigration. Over eight in ten in both France and Germany felt their governments had failed on the immigration front.
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