Malta faced ‘greatest pressure’ despite drop in asylum applications, EU report finds

Asylum applications in the EU dropped to their lowest since 2013 last year but Malta, Cyprus and Greece remained under the “greatest pressure”, the European asylum agency said.

The 485,000 asylum applications received in the EU in 2020 marked a 32% decrease over the previous year, according to the European Asylum Support Office annual report released today.

“Reduced applications were primarily due to restricted mobility and travel, rather than a decrease in the number of people in need of international protection,” the agency said.

It noted that two-thirds of all asylum applications in 2020 were lodged in just three countries: Germany (122,000), France (93,000) and Spain (89,000).

However, EASO said the impact of arrivals was heightened for countries at the external borders.

“When considering GDP and population, Cyprus, Greece and Malta continued to be under the greatest pressure to receive and accommodate asylum applicants,” the agency said.

The data shows that Malta received 2,480 asylum applications last year, a drop of 39% over 2019 when it had received 4,090.

The highest share of asylum applications in Malta was from Sudanese nationals, which accounted for 15%.

Greece received 40,560 asylum applications, while Cyprus received 7,440. Italy received 43,770 asylum applications.

The EASO reported that despite a drastic decrease in asylum applications, Romania and Bulgaria registered increases of 138% and 64% respectively.

EASO said that Malta and other member states like Belgium, France, Ireland and Spain continued to lack reception capacity.

Malta’s reception centres came under fire from the Council of Europe’s committee on the prevention of torture earlier this year, which found that they lacked decent living conditions.

The EASO report notes that Italy had the largest increase in pending cases during 2020 (+6,900). Increases also took place in Romania (+1,300), Bulgaria (+1,100), Malta (+900) and Cyprus (+800).

Malta had 5,140 pending asylum applications by the end of 2020.

Just over two-fifths (42%) of all decisions granted in the EU gave some form of protection at first instance (224,000). Within the positive decisions issued by authorities, 50% of asylum seekers were granted refugee status, 27% humanitarian protection and 23% subsidiary protection.

EASO said that restrictions caused by the pandemic had an impact on asylum processes but member states adapted their asylum procedures, including through the use of digital tools in the face of national public health emergencies.

However, the pandemic brought to a near standstill other areas of the Common European Asylum System.

“For the first time in seven years, the EU’s resettlement programme, which provides a safe and structured pathway to protection, experienced a significant decrease (-58% from 2019) in the number of refugees transferred to Europe. By the end of the year, most countries had not met their national quotas and postponed their allocations to the following year. However, countries continued their efforts through remote interviews and dossier selections,” EASO said.