Supportive welcome

Eurostat released figures regarding asylum-requests in EU 27 by non-EU citizens. Accordingly, a 14% increase was registered in 2011 compared to the previous year, amounting to 301 thousand applications (they were 259 thousand in 2010). An accurate analysis shows that around 90% of these were "new applicants" and around 10% were "repeat applicants". An evaluation based on "numbers" can act as a point of departure for a reflection on the problem of migrations and of the asylum-granting mechanism.Small and large Countries. France with 56.300 applicants is the "favourite" destination of asylum-seekers, followed by Germany (53,300) and Italy (34.100). Other Countries include Belgium, (31 900 applicants), Sweden (29 700), the United Kingdom (26 400), the Netherlands (14 600), Austria (14 400), Greece (9 300) and Poland (6 900). According to Eurostat, these ten Member States accounted for more than 90% of applicants registered in the EU27 in 2011. When compared with the population of each Member State, the highest rates of applicants were recorded in Malta (4 500 applicants per million inhabitants). On the basis of this proportional criteria follow Luxembourg with 4 200 applicants per million inhabitants and Sweden (3 205), 865 in France, 650 in Germany, and 565 applicants per million inhabitants in Italy.A glance to the East. Another relevant aspect that emerges in the survey conducted by Eurostat is that in some EU Member Countries a large number of asylum-seekers come from the same Country. In Poland, for example, 63% of all applicants come from Russia (4.320 cases), while 52% of applicants in Latvia come from Georgia (175 out of 340). Luxembourg seems to be the chosen destination of Serbs, accounting for 44% of all applications. On the whole the main countries of citizenship of these applicants were Afghanistan (28 000 or 9% of the total number of applicants), Russia (18 200 or 6%), Pakistan (15 700 or 5%), Iraq (15 200 or 5%) and Serbia (13 900 or 5%). Iraqi citizens filed 15 200 applications, while those with Serbian citizenship were 13.900.Arab Countries and Africa. As a result of the "Arab Spring" the number of asylum-requests of people from Arab-speaking countries and from Western Africa has increased. In fact, requests by Tunisian citizens increased by 92.5% compared to 2010, those filed by Lybians by 76%, while requests of people arriving from Syria increased by 50%. Alarming increases in the requests from West-African countries: those filed by people with Nigerian citizenship increased by 105%, while over 350% more requests were submitted by people arriving from the Ivory Coast. The final result is that out of 301 thousand requests filed last year in EU27, only 237thousand first instance decisions were made on asylum applications while there were 75% rejections. Precisely 59,465 requests were approved, divided as follows 29 000 applicants (12%) were granted refugee status, 21 400 (9%) subsidiary protection and 9 100 (4%) authorisation to stay "for humanitarian reasons".” “” “Green Light to the EU Resettlement program Past March 29 the European Parliament in conjunction with the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) adopted a new resettlement program for people who have been granted refugee status in third countries. The Program provides significant financial support to resettlement-related activities stepping up protection especially for vulnerable groups such as women at risk and unaccompanied minors, or persons with serious medical needs. The programme is to resettle in the EU people who have been granted refugee status in third countries and on the basis of a set of geographical priorities. For example, "Iraqi refugees in Turkey, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan; Afghan refugees in Turkey, Pakistan and Iran; Congolese refugees in Burundi, Malawi, Rwanda and Zambia or Somali refugees in Ethiopia". According to the European Parliament, "Support for resettling refugees in the above groups will be increased to Member States resettling refugees for the first time": €6,000 per person for the first year and €5,000 per person for the second year. For the rest the sum received will stay at €4,000, namely, the sum Member States currently receive. According to the UNHCR, over 172,000 people will need to be resettled in 2012, whereas the global number of resettlement places is only about 80,000. In 2010 most people resettled in the United States, Canada and Australia, while approximately 5 thousand resettled in Europe. It is hoped that this unbalance will be redressed with the adoption of the new EU Program.