90,000 unaccompanied minor asylum seekers to the EU last year

A minor asylum seeker is wearing a t-shirt that reads written hope, love, joy, dream, friendship and peace..Photo: Tore Meek / NTB scanpix

Nearly 90,000 unaccompanied minors seeking asylum in EU countries last year, according to new figures from Eurostat. Over half of them came from Afghanistan.

The number corresponds to nearly a fourfold increase from 2014, when about 23,000 unaccompanied minors seeking asylum in EU countries, according to statistics agency.

Of the total of 88,300 unaccompanied asylum seekers who come to the EU in 2015 was 91 per cent boys. Over half were aged 16-17 years.
Sweden, Germany, Hungary and Austria received a total of three-quarters of all applications. The highest number of unaccompanied minor asylum seekers were registered in Sweden, which received a total 35,300 applications.

Overall 51 percent of all unaccompanied minors seeking asylum in the EU came from Afghanistan and Afghans constituted the largest share based on citizenship. Furthermore came 16 percent from Syria and 6 percent from Eritrea.

The figures from Eurostat show that Norway received 5,050 asylum applications from unaccompanied minors in 2015. As with the arrivals of EU countries amounted to Afghans the largest share of these, followed by respectively Eritreans and Syrians.

 

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today