In 2009 78 800 verblijfsvergunningen afgegeven in de EU (en)

The EU27 Member States granted protection to 78 800 asylum seekers in 2009 compared with 75 100 in 2008. The largest groups of beneficiaries of protection status1 in the EU27 were citizens of Somalia (13 400 persons or 17% of the total number of persons granted protection status), Iraq (13 100 or 17%) and Afghanistan (7 100 or 9%).

These data on the results of asylum decisions in the EU27 are released by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union on the occasion of the World Refugee Day2 on 20 June 2010.

More than one quarter of EU27 asylum decisions at the first instance resulted in protection status

In 2009, 317 500 decisions on asylum applications3 were made in the EU27, of which 228 600 were first instance decisions and 88 900 final decisions on appeal. Decisions made at the first instance4 resulted in 61 700 persons being granted protection status, while a further 17 100 received protection status on appeal5. The rate of recognition of asylum applicants, i.e. the share of positive decisions in the total number of decisions, was 27% for first instance decisions and 19% for final decisions on appeal.

Of the 78 800 persons who were granted protection status, 39 300 persons were granted refugee status, 29 900 subsidiary protection and 9 600 authorisation to stay for humanitarian reasons. It should be noted that, while both refugee and subsidiary protection status are defined by EU law, humanitarian status is granted on the basis of national legislation relating to international protection.

More than three quarters of grants of protection status in the EU27 made in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Sweden, Italy and the Netherlands

In 2009, the highest number of persons granted protection status was registered in the United Kingdom (12 500), followed by Germany (12 100), France (10 400), Sweden (9 100), Italy (8 600) and the Netherlands (8 100). These Member States accounted for more than three quarters of all those granted protection status in the EU27.

The rate of recognition varies considerably among Member States, which is partly due to the differing citizenships of applicants in each Member State. The highest rates of recognition in the first instance were recorded in Malta (66%), Slovakia (56%), Portugal (51%), the Netherlands and Denmark (both 48%), and the lowest in Greece (1%), Ireland (4%), Spain (8%), France (14%) and Slovenia (15%).

Somalis were the single largest group of persons granted protection status in the EU27. Of the 13 400 Somalis granted protection status in the EU27, 4 000 were recorded in Sweden, 3 600 in the Netherlands, 2 400 in Italy and 1 400 in Malta. Of the 13 100 Iraqis granted protection, 6 200 were registered in Germany, 1 900 in the Netherlands and 1 500 in Sweden, and of the 7 100 Afghans, 1 800 were in the United Kingdom and 1 200 each in Germany and Austria.

More than 260 000 asylum applicants in 2009 and nearly one quarter were minors

On the occasion of the World Refugee Day, Eurostat also issues a report6 on the characteristics of asylum seekers in the EU27 in 2009. It should be noted that processing of applications takes time, and therefore there is no direct correspondence between applications made and decisions taken during the same year. In 2009, around

261 000 asylum applicants were registered in the EU27. Amongst other characteristics such as the origin and gender of these applicants, the report highlights that minors accounted for 60 500 of the applicants, of which

12 200 were unaccompanied.

Decisions on asylum applications in 2009

Data are rounded to the nearest five.

0 means less than 3.

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  No decisions taken during the reference period.

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  The total number of decisions refers to the number of administrative decisions rather than the number of individuals.

** Rate of recognition is the share of positive decisions (first instance or final on appeal) in the total number of decisions at the given stage. In this calculation, the exact number of decisions has been used instead of the rounded numbers presented in this table.

*** Data on final decisions on appeal are estimates.

Largest groups granted protection status, 2009

Data are rounded to the nearest five.

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  Not applicable.

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  No data presented for those countries of citizenship where the number of positive decisions was 2 or less during the reference period.

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  Persons with this citizenship granted protection status as a percentage of the total number of persons granted protection in this country.

** Data on final decisions on appeal are estimates.

*** Kosovo under UN Security Council Resolution 1244.

**** A stateless person is someone who is not recognized as citizen of any State.

Positive decisions on asylum applications, 2009

Data are rounded to the nearest five.

0 means less than 3.

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  Not applicable
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  Protection status includes three different categories of protection:

Person granted refugee status means a person covered by a decision granting refugee status, taken by administrative or judicial bodies during the reference period. Refugee status means status as defined in Art.2(d) of Directive 2004/83/EC within the meaning of Art.1 of the Geneva Convention relating to the Status of Refugees of 28 July 1951, as amended by the New York Protocol of 31 January 1967. According to the Art.2(c) of that Directive refugee means a third country national who, owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership of a particular social group, is outside the country of nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself or herself of the protection of that country, or a stateless person, who, being outside of the country of former habitual residence for the same reasons as mentioned above, is unable or, owing to such fear, unwilling to return to it.

Person granted subsidiary protection status means a person covered by a decision granting subsidiary protection status, taken by administrative or judicial bodies during the reference period. Subsidiary protection status means status as defined in Art.2(f) of Directive 2004/83/EC. According to the Art.2(e) of that Directive person eligible for subsidiary protection means a third country national or a stateless person who does not qualify as a refugee but in respect of whom substantial grounds have been shown for believing that the person concerned, if returned to his or her country of citizenship, or in the case of a stateless person, to his or her country of former habitual residence, would face a real risk of suffering serious harm and is unable, or, owing to such risk, unwilling to avail himself or herself of the protection of that country.

Person granted authorisation to stay for humanitarian reasons means a person covered by a decision granting authorisation to stay for humanitarian reasons under national law concerning international protection, taken by administrative or judicial bodies during the reference period. It includes persons who are not eligible for international protection as currently defined in the first stage legal instruments, but are nonetheless protected against removal under the obligations that are imposed on all Member States by international refugee or human rights instruments or on the basis of principles flowing from such instruments. Examples of such categories include persons who are not removable on ill health grounds and unaccompanied minors.

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  For more information see: http://www.unrefugees.org
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  A decision on an asylum application means a decision on an application for international protection as defined in Art.2(g) of Council Directive 2004/83/EC, i.e. including requests for refugee status or for subsidiary protection status, irrespective of whether the application was lodged on arrival at border, or from inside the country, and irrespective of whether the person entered the territory legally (e.g. as a tourist) or illegally.
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  First instance decision means a decision made in response to an asylum application at the first instance level of the asylum procedure.
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  Final decision on appeal means a decision granted at the final instance of administrative/judicial asylum procedure and which results from the appeal lodged by the asylum seeker rejected in the preceding stage of the procedure. As the asylum procedures and the numbers/levels of decision making bodies differ between Member States, the true final instance may be, according to the national legislation and administrative procedures, a decision of the highest national court. However, the applied methodology defines that 'final decisions' should refer to what is effectively a 'final decision' in the vast majority of all cases: i.e. that all normal routes of appeal have been exhausted.
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  Eurostat, Statistics in Focus, 27/2010 "Around 261,000 asylum applicants from 151 different countries were registered in the EU-27 in 2009", available free of charge in PDF format on the Eurostat web site. The data in this publication are provided to Eurostat by Ministries of the Interior or Justice, or immigration agencies, of the Member States. These data are supplied by Member States according to the provisions of Article 4 of the Regulation (EC) 862/2007 of 11 July 2007 on Community statistics on migration and international protection.