In the first half of 2025, applications seeking asylum in the European Union dropped by 23%, the EU’s asylum agency said Monday.
The Malta-based European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA) said 399,000 new applications were lodged between January and June, down 114,000, or 23%, from the same period in 2024.
Germany lost its spot as the most preferred country for asylum seekers and saw the biggest decline in asylum applications standing at a 43% drop.
It was followed by followed by Italy and Spain, which saw 25% and 13% declines, respectively.
Asylum claims are, of course, heavily driven by world events. They’re also seasonal in some cases, with drops in claims during the colder and wetter months (where that’s a relevant concern).
From my understanding a significant portion of asylum claims in Europe came from Syrian refugees.
In December of 2024 the former Syrian president Assad was deposed and the country has (seemingly) gotten a lot more stable since. So it makes sense that asylum claims would be down in the first half of 2025 compared to the same period in 2024.
This is a good development. Not only does it mean that people will be able to go home in relative safety, it also takes away a lot of the ammunition (the fallout from the refugee crisis that has been ongoing since 2015) that the right-wing populists and fascists all over Europe have been using to gain power.
I was thinking Germany has gotten a lot from Ukraine, but apparently they didn’t need to apply for asylum, they were given a different label.
AFAIK, they can enter without the need for a visa and then apply directly for social security.