TIRANA, Sept. 25 – Over the last twelve months, Albanians have, for the first time, marked the highest number of asylum seekers in report with the population, leaving behind even those who are fleeing from war in their home countries.
This was reported by Albanian media after data published by Eurostat on the number of new applications over the last twelve months and according to the Albanian population as per the World Bank and calculations made by Monitor magazine.
Syria comes after Albania, with a rate of 4.7 applications over the last 12 months, while Georgia comes third, with 3.9 applications for the last 12 months.
Iraq and Palestine, which also have a high number of asylum seekers per 1000 residents, recorded 1.2 and 1.1 applications respectively.
The top 30 countries with the highest number of asylum seekers are mainly countries at war or deep internal conflict, some African countries and countries currently facing strong economic crises, such as Turkey or Venezuela.
Concerning the absolute number of first-time asylum seekers in the European Union, 18,620 applications have been registered from Albania alone over the past 12 months, ranking seventh in the list of the 30 countries.
Syria tops the category with over 86,000 applications, Iraq follows with over 43,000, Afghanistan with over 36,000, Nigeria with over 29,000, Pakistan with over 25,000 and Eritrea with over 19,000.
However, taking into account these states’ high population number, the Albanian figures remain alarming according to population experts, although the number has been declining after it reached its peak in 2015 with over 60,000 applications.
During the first half of 2018, the total number of first-time asylum applications for Albanians was 8040. According to Eurostat statistics, 136,700 asylum seekers were registered for the first time in the second quarter of 2018 throughout the European Union. Compared to the first trimester, the number rose by four percent.
Meanwhile, Albania continues to be the European country with the highest number of asylum seekers in the EU. According to statistics published by Eurostat, in the second quarter of 2018, 3930 people applied for asylum for the first time, or 3% of the total asylum seekers in the European Union
France appears to be the country with the highest number of asylum seekers for the second trimester of 2018, with 38 percent of applications, or about 1495 applicants.
In the second place in terms of the number of applicants, unlike in the previous trimesters, Greece is ranked second with about 20 percent of asylum applications, or 800 applicants.
