STA, 25 June 2020 - The number of asylum request filed in Slovenia increased by 33% to 3,820 last year, while the total increase among EU members was 11% to 738,425, shows an annual report published on Thursday by the European Asylum Support Office (EASO).
EASO pointed out that 2019 had been the first year after 2015 to see an increase in the number of applications at the annual level. It added the reasons included a 103% rise in applicants from Venezuela and a 214% increase in asylum seekers from Columbia. While some countries received more applications than in 2015, Germany stood out with 165,615.
The largest share among the asylum seekers in the EU (11%) was accounted for by Syrians, followed Afghans (8.2%) and Venezuelans (6.2%), while Algerians topped the list in Slovenia.
Around 30,700 persons came to the EU last year as part of the relocation scheme, which envisages the admitting of 50,000 migrants. Slovenia accepted no migrants as part the scheme last year. For the third year running, Syrians made up about two-thirds of the persons relocated, EASO said.
There were 912,000 unresolved applications at the end of last year, significantly more than in the pre-2015 period, which the office said shows the pressure that asylum systems continue to operate under. In Slovenia, the number of unresolved cases at the end of last year was 530, a 30% increase on the year before.
The full report, in PDF form
