During the second quarter of 2015 (from April to June 2015), 213 200 first time asylum seekers applied for protection in the European Union (EU), up by 15% compared with the first quarter of 2015 and by 85% compared with the second quarter of 2014. In particular, the number of Syrians and Afghans rose considerably to reach almost 44 000 and 27 000 respectively. They represent the two main citizenships of first time asylum applicants in the EU over the second quarter 2015, accounting for a third of all first time applicants. Kosovars, who were the top citizenship of first time asylum applicants in the first three months of 2015, have seen their number drop from almost 50 000 during the first quarter 2015 to just over 10 000 in the second quarter 2015. These quarterly data on asylum in the EU come from a report issued by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.
During the second quarter 2015, the highest number of first time applicants was registered in Germany (80 900 first time applicants, or 38% of total first time applicants in the EU), followed by Hungary (32 700, or 15%), Austria (17 400, or 8%), Italy (14 900, or 7%), France (14 700, or 7%) and Sweden (14 300, or 7%).
In Cyprus, 400 people seeked asylum for the first time during the second quarter of 2015, compared to 440 in the first quarter (0,2% of the total).
Asylum seekers in numbers
