In July 2024, 74,695 first-time asylum applicants (non-EU citizens) applied for international protection in EU countries, a 7.5% decrease compared with July 2023 (80 735), according to EU Reporter.
There were also 7,145 subsequent applicants, 26.2 per cent more than in July 2023 (5,660).
This information comes from the monthly asylum data published on Thursday by Eurostat. The article presents some of the findings from a more detailed Statistics Explained article on the monthly asylum statistics.
Syrians remained the largest group of people seeking asylum in July 2024 (12,295 first-time applicants). They were followed by Afghans (6,030) and Venezuelans (5,170).
Germany (18,505), Italy (13,235), Spain (11,925) and France (11,300) continued to receive the highest number of first-time asylum seekers, accounting for 74% of the total number of first-time asylum seekers in the EU.
The overall EU rate of first-time asylum seekers in July 2024 was 16.6 per hundred thousand people. Compared to the population of each EU country (as of 1 January 2024), the highest rate of first-time applicants was recorded in Greece (55.1), ahead of Ireland (32.2).
2,985 unaccompanied minors applied for asylum in the EU for the first time, with the majority coming from Syria (895), Afghanistan (470) and Egypt (345).
The EU country with the highest number of asylum applications from unaccompanied minors was Germany (750), ahead of Bulgaria (455), Greece (420), the Netherlands (355) and Spain (325).
