NEARLY 1 million people applied for international protection in the European Union in 2022, according to new data published today.

This brought the number of asylum requests to a level not seen since the refugee crisis of 2015-2016.

The EU agency for asylum said that 966,000 asylum applications were made in the 27 EU countries as well as in Norway and Switzerland last year. This was up 50 per cent from 2021. 

The figures do not include the more than 4 million Ukrainian refugees who were granted temporary protection in the EU, a special mechanism activated to avoid existing asylum systems.

The European agency linked the increase to continuing the easing of Covid-19 travel restrictions, increasing food insecurity and conflicts in many parts of the world. 

Though most asylum-seekers enter the EU legally, mainly by plane with travel visas, some also crossed the EU’s land and sea borders without permission, mainly through the Western Balkans and the Mediterranean.

After more than a decade of war and economic collapse in their country, Syrians continued to be the top nationality of asylum-seekers in Europe with more than 130,000 applications. 

They were followed closely by Afghans with 129,000 and applicants from Turkey with 55,000 requests. 

The recent earthquake that killed nearly 46,000 people and left hundreds of thousands homeless in Turkey and Syria has raised the prospect of a potential surge in irregular border crossings into Greece. 

Venezuelans, Colombians, Bangladeshis and Georgians applied for asylum in record numbers last year, as did Moroccans, Tunisians and Egyptians. Some 4 per cent of asylum-seekers in 2022 were identified as unaccompanied minors.

The European agency didn’t say which EU countries received the most applications last year. But the Associated Press reports that an internal EU migration report lists Germany, France, Spain, Austria and Italy as the top five.