The number of asylum applications in Europe in August hit a seven-year record, the European Union said on Wednesday. About 84,500 people submitted forms to the block to live permanently on the continent, an increase of 16% compared to the previous month.
Afghans and Syrians are still the highest percentages of nationalities seeking refuge in Europe, around 30%. Since August of last year, Afghanistan has been ruled by the Taliban, an Islamic fundamentalist group responsible for persecuting and killing opponents, as well as suppressing women’s rights. Syria has suffered from the ongoing civil war in the country since 2011.
There were also increases in requests from people coming from India, Bangladesh, Morocco and Turkey. According to the European Union Asylum Agency, the body responsible for filing applications, 4,600 Turks have applied for asylum on the European continent, the highest number since 2014. on the list, remained constant.
The number of applications registered in August corresponds to about half the number observed between September and November 2015, when Europe experienced the height of the migration crisis, triggered by the arrival of thousands of refugees from countries in Africa and the Middle East.
As at the time, the EU points out, the Balkan nations are currently the main ports of entry for refugees on the continent. The presence of Syrians on this route, for example, doubled between April and August this year.
At the same time, Europe continues to receive millions of Ukrainians from Eastern Europe fleeing the Russian invasion of the country. In this case, however, most applications are made through a system that guarantees the temporary stay of refugees on the continent – in August alone, there were 255,000 such applications, almost all of them from Ukrainians.
According to the UN, nearly 8 million people have entered Europe fleeing the Ukrainian War since February 24. Of these, around 4.7 million were granted temporary protection by the European Union.
The numbers, in a way, dialogue with analyzes of the acceptance of refugees around the world. Also in July, a survey that surveyed more than 20,000 people in 28 countries found that Ukrainian refugees are much more accepted by host nations than Afghans, Syrians and those fleeing humanitarian disasters elsewhere in the world.
According to the survey, carried out by the research institute Ipsos, 54% of respondents said they supported their country to receive Ukrainian refugees, and only 15% said against it. When the topic was Afghan and Syrian, on the other hand, take-up was only 30% and 32%, respectively.
The release of the figures on Wednesday comes as at least 200 migrants have been stranded on a ship in the Mediterranean for two weeks, awaiting authorization from the Italian government to disembark in Sicily – which has already been ruled out by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
The ship, owned by a refugee rescue NGO, is now heading for the coast of France, where it hopes to receive authorization to dock at a port in the country. It is not certain, however, that this will happen. On Wednesday, the French government spokesman said that “European rules are very clear” and that the ship needs to be received by Italy, as it is in Italian territorial waters.
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