More than 1 million asylum applications pending in EU

BRUSSELS

More than one million applications for asylum in EU member states were under consideration at the end of June 2016, the bloc’s statistics agency reported on Thursday.

Eurostat said: “Almost 1.1 million applications for asylum protection in the EU Member States were under consideration by the responsible national authority.”

In the same period in 2015, the number was 633,000, the agency added.

Eurostat also said that more than 300,000 first time asylum seekers applied for protection in the European Union during the second quarter of 2016 (April-June).

Most of first time asylum applicants were from war-torn Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq.

Six in ten applications for asylum were for Germany, the agency said, adding that around 187,000 first applicants registered in Europe’s largest economy, followed by Italy (27,000), France (17,800) and Hungary (14,900).

The Syrian civil war has prompted a massive influx of Syrian refugees in Turkey and later to the EU. Turkey hosts around 3 million Syrian refugees.