Malta had the second-highest number of first-time asylum claims relative to the population among EU member states in the third quarter of 2020, according to new data by Eurostat.

A total of 680 people claimed asylum for the first time in Malta during the period, accounting for 0.6 per cent of all first-time asylum claims received by the 27 member states.

Compared to the population, Cyprus had the highest rate of registered first-time applicants per one million people, with 1,848, while Malta had 1,320 per million, followed by Greece, with 799 per million.

Comparatively, the lowest rates per million were observed in Hungary, that had only one applicant per million population, followed by Poland and Estonia, with nine each.

Where did applicants come from?

In Malta, the majority of first-time applicants in the third quarter of 2020 came from Sudan – 21 per cent or 140 people, followed by Bangladesh (19 per cent or 130 people) and Eritrea (eight per cent or 55 people).

Majority of applicants came from Sudan, followed by Bangladesh and Eritrea

A further seven per cent of applicants were from Nigeria and another five per cent hailed from the Ivory Coast.

How many applications were accepted or rejected?

Of the 140 asylum applications decided by Malta during this time, 110 were rejected. Only 30 were granted and five people were given refugee status, giving Malta a 22 per cent recognition rate.

With 18,100 first-time applicants, Syrians remained the largest group of persons seeking international protection in EU member states, followed by Afghans (11,200) and Venezuelans (9,600).

Citizens from these countries accounted for over one-third (35 per cent) of all first-time asylum applicants in the third quarter of 2020.

The highest number of first-time applicants was registered in Germany, with 27,200 first-time asylum applicants, or 24 per cent of total first-time applicants in the EU, followed by Spain (26,900, or 24 per cent) and France (21,700, or 19 per cent).

These three member states accounted for over two-thirds (68 per cent) of all first-time asylum applicants in the period under review.

As of the end of September 2020, about 790,800 applications for asylum protection remained pending across all member states.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.