TIRANA, April 29 – In 2019, 395 Albanian asylum applicants were considered unaccompanied minors. According to Eurostat’s latest report, 230 of these applications were lodged to the U.K., making up 60 percent of the total.
The rest of the applications were lodged in Germany and Sweden, with 20 unaccompanied minor applicants each, as well as Belgium with 25 unaccompanied minors.
Although the number of Albanias unaccompanied minors seeking asylum in the U.K. and the EU dropped by 20 percent since last year, Albanians still lodged more applications than other countries in the West Balkans region did; Only 20 applicants from Serbia were considered unaccompanied minors while in Kosovo the total was 15 applicants and in Macedonia the total was 10 applicants. No unaccompanied minors from Bosnia & Herzegovina and Montenegro applied for asylum in the EU and the U.K., according to Eurostat data.
In 2019, at the EU level, unaccompanied minors accounted for 7 percent of all asylum applicants aged less than 18. The majority of unaccompanied minors were males (85 percent). Two-thirds were aged 16 to 17 (9 200 persons), while those aged 14 to 15 accounted for 22 percent (3 100 persons) and those aged less than 14 for 11 percent (1 500 persons). Two in three asylum applicants considered to be unaccompanied minors in the EU in 2019 were the citizens of six countries: Afghanistan (30 percent), Syria and Pakistan (both 10 percent) as well as Somalia, Guinea or Iraq (5 percent each).
The highest number of asylum applicants considered to be unaccompanied minors was registered in Greece (3 300 unaccompanied minors, or 24 percent of all those registered in the EU Member States), followed by Germany (2 700, or 19 percent), Belgium (1 200, or 9 percent) and the Netherlands (1 000, or 8 percent). Among the Member States with more than 500 asylum seekers considered to be unaccompanied minors in 2019, the highest increases compared with the previous year were recorded in Austria (500 more, or +120%) ahead of Belgium (500 more, or 63 percent), Greece (700 more, or 26 percent) and Slovenia (100 more, or 21 percent).
