The quantitative indicators of those wishing to obtain refugee status vary greatly across EU countries, and this gap continued to grow in 2008. In the first quarter, there were 53,000 applicants across the EU, which is 3% less than in the same period in 2007.
Thus, in Malta, the number of those seeking refugee status increased by 177%, in Finland by 64%, in Germany by 30%. For comparison: in the first quarter of 2008, 386 people applied for refugee status in Finland, while in Slovakia, which has approximately the same population, 172 people applied for asylum. The number of applicants there decreased by 72%.
In Austria, whose population is one and a half times larger than that of Slovakia, the number of those seeking refugee status is 16 times higher. Austria outpaces Germany significantly in this regard. As Deutsche Welle notes, the population of Germany is ten times that of its southern neighbor, but the number of applicants for refugee status is only twice as high. For example, according to UN data, in the first quarter of 2008, 5,760 people applied for refugee status in Germany, 4,916 in Greece, and 7,047 in Sweden.
Despite the fact that the majority of refugees traditionally arrive in Europe from Iraq, their number decreased by 23% compared to the first quarter of 2007. The number of refugees from Russia (mostly residents of Chechnya) increased by 47% to 4,633 people. They are followed by Pakistan (2,618 people), Somalia (2,762), and Serbia and Montenegro (2,618).