The number of asylum requests remained stable during the summer across the EU, according to the European Asylum Support Office (EASO). Overall in August this year 52,500 applications were filed, slightly down on July but in line with the previous months.
The agency reported a slowdown in first-instance decisions by authorities in EU countries, with a significant inversion of the trend: the number of pending cases once again rose after a stable downturn since September 2016.
Asylum authorities issued a total of 43,725 decisions in August, one of the lowest levels in the past three years. Since May, less than 50,000 measures were issued every month. There were 431,275 cases at the end of July awaiting a decision of first instance, some 10,000 more than the previous month. The main country of origin of asylum seekers were Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Turkey and Iran. Except for Syrians, these nationalities presented more applications from July.