Estonia was last year one of the least popular destinations among European Union member states with asylum-seekers in both absolute and relative terms, it appears from the figures released by the EU's statistics office Eurostat on Monday.
Estonia least popular EU country among asylum-seekers
25th March 2013, 17:23
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EU member states registered 331,975 asylum applications in 2012 compared to 301,000 the year before. An estimated 90 percent of the total were new applicants and 10 percent repeat applicants.
The highest number of applicants was registered in Germany - 77,500 or 23 percent of the total number. Next came France with 60,600, Sweden with 43,900, Britain with 28,200 and Belgium with 28,100 applicants. These five countries accounted for more than 70 percent of all applicants registered in EU member states last year.
According to Eurostat, Estonia received 75 asylum applications in 2012, the smallest number among the EU27. Latvia registered 205, Portugal 295, Slovenia 305 and Lithuania 645 applicants.
Compared to the population, the highest rate of registered applicants was observed in Malta - 5,000 applications per million inhabitants, followed by Sweden (4,600), Luxembourg (3,900), Belgium (2,500) and Austria (2,100).
The lowest rates were recorded in Portugal - 30 applicants per million inhabitants, Estonia and Spain (both 55) and the Czech Republic (70).
Eurostat observed that 8 percent of all asylum-seekers registered last year came from Afghanistan. Syria and Russia were the country of citizenship of 7 percent each and Pakistan and Serbia both accounted for 6 percent.
EU member states rejected 73 percent of asylum applications last year. Refugee status was granted to 14 percent and subsidiary protection to 10 percent of applicants, and 2 percent were allowed to stay for humanitarian reasons, Eurostat said.
Estonia made 20 positive decisions and granted refugee status to 10 applicants last year, the figures show.