Migration to Europe, 9/11/18. By EU, reported by BBC.
Italy's
decision in June not to accept the rescue vessel Aquarius with more than 600
migrants on board attracted widespread criticism, and the issue of border
controls for migrants threatened to break up the German
coalition government.
So, how
many people are arriving now, where are they from and what is happening to
those who have arrived in the EU in previous years?
Number of arrivals has been greatly reduced. The highest
number of arrivals - 1,015,078 - was recorded in 2015. More than 800,000 of
them were trafficked by sea from Turkey to Greece, and the majority of them
continued to travel through Europe to reach Germany and Sweden.
Crossing the Mediterranean
Syrians top asylum seekers list - The top countries by origin of asylum seekers in the EU since 2014 are Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan, all countries with recent or ongoing conflicts.
Germany took the highest number of asylum seekers
Germany tops list for granting asylum - Each asylum application is assessed on an individual basis. The process can take many years, and those who apply for asylum are given basic housing, food, education and healthcare.
Crossing the Mediterranean
Syrians top asylum seekers list - The top countries by origin of asylum seekers in the EU since 2014 are Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan, all countries with recent or ongoing conflicts.
Germany took the highest number of asylum seekers
Germany tops list for granting asylum - Each asylum application is assessed on an individual basis. The process can take many years, and those who apply for asylum are given basic housing, food, education and healthcare.
Failed asylum seekers
Since
2015, the number of refugees and migrants arriving in Greece has fallen
dramatically, after the EU and Turkey signed an agreement to send back to
Turkey migrants who do not apply for asylum or whose claim was rejected.
While the
number of arrivals has dropped in Greece, the number of people arriving in
Italy showed little change until 2018 when it also dropped considerably. In
2016 and 2017, 180,000 and 119,000 arrived in Italy respectively, smuggled by
traffickers from North Africa and rescued at sea. In 2017, Italy received 67%
of the EU's migrant arrivals.
However,
since January this year, the number of arrivals in Italy has greatly reduced,
with 20,120 arriving by mid-September 2018.
In the
same period, Spain received the highest number of migrants and refugees -
almost 35,000 - the majority of them by sea and more than 5,300 by land to
Ceuta and Melilla, two Spanish enclaves in North Africa.
The UN
refugee agency (UNHCR) says that routes used by human traffickers are
constantly changing and are dependent on a number of factors, but the drop in
numbers reaching Italy is attributed mainly to its close co-operation with the
Libyan coastguard.
A total of
20,760 have arrived in Greece so far this year, bringing the total number of
arrivals in the EU in 2018 to just over 76,000
Syria is
still the most common country of origin of those arriving in Greece. Arrivals
from Iraq and Afghanistan are also among the top countries of origin.
In Italy
and Spain, arrivals from mostly African countries top the list. In Italy, the
most common country of origin is Tunisia, followed by Eritrea, Sudan, Nigeria,
and Pakistan.
Spain
received most of its migrants from Guinea, followed by Morocco and Mali, as
well as the Ivory Coast, Syria and a number of other Sub-Saharan African
countries.
The
highest estimated number
of dead and missing migrants in the Mediterranean - 5,096 - was
recorded in 2016, despite a significant drop in migrant crossings compared with
the previous year. Since then the number of deaths has fallen.
The
Mediterranean crossing is becoming deadlier every year, if the number of
estimated deaths is viewed as a proportion of the number of people who actually
manage to reach the EU.
In 2015,
there was one death in every 269 arrivals recorded. In 2016, this went up to
one death in 72 arrivals and in 2017 to one in 57 arrivals.
But based
on figures to mid-September 2018, the deadliest year so far has been this year,
with one death for every 49 people who arrived in the EU.
That's
because in 2014 and 2015 the majority of refugees and migrants arriving in the
EU entered Greece from Turkey, using a much shorter sea route, while since
2016, that has been replaced by a much longer and more dangerous route - to
Italy from Libya.
Between
2014 and 2017, a total of more than 919,000 Syrians applied for asylum in the
EU. Asylum seekers from Eritrea, Bangladesh, Somalia, Iran and a number of
Sub-Saharan countries are among the top 10 countries of origin of those who
have been applying for asylum in the EU since 2014.
Sharing
the burden of asylum applications equally between the EU countries is once
again the top issue on the EU agenda. The June EU summit, where the leaders
agreed that member states should distribute asylum seekers among themselves,
has not solved the issue because the redistribution will be only on a voluntary
basis.
The number
of first-time asylum applications reached a record level in 2016 and has fallen
since.
At the end
of the process, asylum is granted to those who can prove they fled war and
persecution, while those who do not meet the criteria are refused asylum.
The top
country for successful asylum applications is Germany, followed by France,
Italy, Austria and Sweden.
The
governments of the EU countries have warned that those who do not have a
legitimate asylum claim will be returned to their country of origin.
The European
Commission estimated
that there were more than two million people staying in the EU illegally in
2015. Hundreds of thousands of those who do not qualify for asylum have been
returned since then, but there are still hundreds of thousands of undocumented
migrants living in the EU.
Number of
Returned Migrants – EU Chart
2014
175,000
2015
190,000
2016 225,000
2017 185,000
The
European Commission says it does not want its migration policy to be judged on
how many returns there have been and that its aim is that everyone who
qualifies for asylum gets it, with people who are not eligible not coming in
the first place.
Correction
30 July: The chart on successful asylum applications has been amended to
include the total number of first-instance decisions.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody
GA Tea Party Leader
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