Prior to the Coronavirus pandemic, there was a steady increase in the number of applications, says the European Asylum Agency report.
The closure of both the external and internal borders of the European Union due to the coronavirus pandemic has already halved the number of applications for political asylum. The latest report from the European Asylum Agency (EASO), published on Thursday, shows this.
“The number of asylum requests to the EU was almost halved in March, when measures to contain the Coronavirus pandemic were put in place. In March, 34,737 asylum applications were submitted to the EU, 43% lower than in February. Before the Coronavirus pandemic, there had been a steady increase in asylum applications in the EU. In January, the number of applications amounted to 65.3 thousand, while in February – 61.1 thousand. These figures are 16% higher than in the first two months of 2019”, – the document says.
At the same time, most EU countries quarantined and closed their borders not at the beginning, but only by mid-March. Thus, when the statistics for April become known, one can expect a further decline in the number of new arrivals of foreign migrants in the EU.