Asylum applicationsfiled in its countries EU, Norway and Switzerland in the first half of 2023, they increased by 28% compared to the same period last year, the EU’s asylum agency announced today.

About 519,000 asylum applications were filed in those 29 countries from January to the end of June, the agency said, estimating that “based on the current trend, applications may exceed one million by the end of the year.”

The majority of applications, 44%, have been submitted by citizens of Syria, Afghanistan, Venezuela, Turkey and Colombia.

In addition, more applications were submitted in the first half of 2023 than have ever been recorded in the same period since 2015-2016.

In 2015-2016, when the war in Syria had caused a large influx of migrants to Europe, the total number of asylum applications had reached 1.3 million in 2015 and 1.2 million in 2016. In 2022, a total of 994,945 applications were submitted .

Germany is the country that has received the most requests, 30% of the total. Spain (17%) and France (16%) follow.

The agency also highlighted that due to this large increase many European countries are “under pressure to consider applications”, adding that the number of requests for which a response is expected increased by 34% compared to 2022.

41% of the applications that have been examined have been accepted.

At the same time, about 4 million Ukrainians, who left their country after the Russian invasion, have been granted temporary protection status in the EU.