More than 700,000 granted asylum in the EU last year

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The EU’s 28 member states granted asylum to 710,400 people last year, more than twice as many as 2015, according to recent figures from Eurostat.

Most people who won in the asylum ‘lottery’ in 2016 came from war-ridden Syria. People from Iraq and Afghanistan are also high on the list.

In 2015, 330,000 people were granted asylum, according to statistics.

Of the 710,400 persons who were granted asylum in 2016, 405,600 were Syrians. Over 70 percent of these, nearly 300,000, received asylum in Germany, while nearly 45,000 Syrians were welcomed to Sweden.

By comparison, only 45 Syrians were granted asylum in Poland.

There are also Syrians who have had the lowest rejection rate on their asylum applications. A total of 98.1 percent of the Syrians have been granted asylum at first application, followed by more than nine out of ten Eritreans.

Germany, Sweden and Denmark have a grant rate of close to seventy percent of all asylum seekers; Hungary has in the other end of the scale granted asylum to only 8 percent of applicants – or in actual figures – 430 people.

Norway has a grant rate after the first application of two thirds and granted asylum to a total of 12,755 people.

 

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today