Asylum applications drop to lowest levels in 15 years

First-time asylum applications in Malta last year dropped to their lowest levels since 2010, while last month saw EU lawmakers, including five Maltese MEPs, approve tougher migration laws across the bloc.

Malta recorded 405 first-time asylum applications last year, the lowest number since 2010, a seemingly anomalous year when applications dropped drastically to 145 only to return to more than 1,800 the following year.

The results, released by Eurostat last month, follow a pattern of year-on-year decline in asylum applications since a peak in 2019, when more than 4,000 people applied for protection.

The figures reflect Malta’s hardened approach to migrant crossings across the Mediterranean in recent years, a stance that appears to be increasingly adopted at an EU level.

EU lawmakers last month backed a legislative package allowing member states to build deportation centres outside the bloc, while increasing detention periods to up to two years and imposing long-term entry bans for those returned to their country of origin.

The package saw cross-party support among Malta’s MEPs, except for European Parliament president Roberta Metsola, who does not participate in EP votes.

The law, which passed by a comfortable margin of more than 180 votes, has been interpreted as a further sign of Europe’s swing to the right on immigration matters.

While the bill garnered the support of the vast majority of the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) parliamentary group, of which Malta’s Nationalist Party is a member, it also saw some Socialist and Democrats (S&D) lawmakers break ranks to vote for the package, including Malta’s Labour MEPs, whose national party belongs to the group.

Overall, the number of first-time asylum applications across the EU fell by more than a quarter (27%) last year, dropping to over 669,000.

Venezuelans made up the biggest share of asylum applicants, accounting for almost 90,000, or 13% of the total, followed by applicants from Afghanistan (10%) and Syria (6%). Greece saw the highest number of applications relative to its population, with 5.3 applicants per capita compared to the EU average of 1.5 applicants.

Malta’s year-on-year decline in asylum applications reflects sharp drops in rescues of migrant boats by Malta’s armed forces in the years since 2020, when a secretive migration coordination deal was signed with Libya.

Data released in June last year shows that in the years following the deal, AFM rescues plummeted as interceptions of migrant boats in Malta’s search and rescue zone by Libyan militia groups steadily increased.

Non-EU arrivals can apply for refugee status if they can prove they cannot return to their home country due to well-founded fears of persecution due to their race, religion, nationality, political stance or membership of a particular social group.

Those granted asylum can remain in the EU while those refused are ejected from the bloc.

While proponents of the new law argue return centres will act as deterrents to illegal migration, critics argue the provision could see migrants sent to countries with dubious human rights records, while pointing to legal challenges against such facilities.

Britain abandoned a similar scheme to deport undocumented migrants to Rwanda, while Italian-run facilities to process migrants in Albania have faced protracted legal challenges.

In December, one man died and six were taken to hospital after 61 migrants were rescued when their boat capsized off Malta.