The statistics cover citizens of 141 countries. The increase was due to citizens of Syria (from 22,000 to 44,000) and Afghanistan (from 4,500 to 27,000). While the majority of Syrians preferred to go to Germany, Afghans were more interested in Hungary. Both pushed aside Albanians, who led in the first quarter of this year with 50,000 people. However, in the second quarter, their number fell to 10,000. A significant number of refugees were also recorded from Albania and Iraq. The number of asylum applications from Iranians increased sixfold compared to the same period last year, and the number of migrants from Montenegro tripled.
One in three refugees filed their application in Germany. From April to July, 38% of all refugees arrived in this country – 80,900 people, with almost half of all arrivals being Syrians and Albanians. 15% of refugees stayed in Hungary, 8% in Austria, 7% in Italy, the same amount in France and Sweden.
Curiously, refugees bothered Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Croatia, as well as Slovenia and Slovakia the least: fewer than a hundred people arrived in each of these countries in the first half of the year. The citizenship of the refugees is quite interesting. For example, most of those who came to Latvia were Vietnamese and Afghans, as well as a few Ukrainians, while to Lithuania came Ukrainians and Georgians, as well as Indians.
Eurostat provides a breakdown of all refugees by citizenship – who appears in the top three lines among applicants, and this shows an interesting picture. While Germany remains with its familiar Syrians, Afghans and Kosovars, to Italy come Nigerians, Gambians and Pakistanis, to France – Kosovo Serbs, citizens of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sudanese. Finland attracts Somalis, Iraqis and Albanians, to England head citizens of Eritrea, Pakistan and Iran. Russians are mentioned in the table only once – most often they seek asylum in Poland. From April to June, almost 1,100 Russians migrated to this country.
There are many Ukrainians in the table: 700 preferred Spain, 400 moved to Poland, 140 ended up in the Czech Republic, 120 settled in Romania, several dozen chose Malta, Lithuania and Croatia.
The table also traces the route of 44,000 Syrian refugees. From Syria, they apparently headed to Turkey. From there, 170 people decided to sail to Cyprus and settle there, 900 people crossed the border with Greece, the remaining flow went to Bulgaria, where another 2,000 people decided to stay. The flow then moves to Romania, 'losing' 210 people along the way, and crosses the border with Hungary. Here the first large batch of migrants settles – 8,400 people. The rest move further – to Austria, where 5,300 people end their journey. Five fearless Syrians go to Italy, another 25 stay in the Czech Republic, and the main mass moves to Germany. There, 16,000 people decide to apply for asylum.
About 1,400 people go to the Netherlands, another thousand prefer beer and Belgium. Over 2,000 continue on to France, but not many stay there; the majority – 1,800 – continue to the borders of Spain and settle there. Another group of refugees crosses the German-Danish border. A thousand stay in Denmark, another 3,800 in Sweden. 365 people reached cold Norway, some of whom have certainly heard about the beauty of the fjords and the level of social benefits in that country. Another 10 Syrians decided to stay in Estonia.
For now, the authorities of EU countries cannot promptly process all applications for asylum. At the end of June this year, over 592,000 applications were under consideration. Half a year ago, this number was 365,000 applications.