International Protection
(Brussels) “In 2017, 728,470 requests for international protection in the EU were recorded, 44% less with respect to 2016.However,the figure is still higher than the figures in the period before the refugee crisis, starting in 2015”. It is said in the annual report on migration and asylum made known by EASO today, European Asylum Support Office, the EU agency monitoring this sector. The 264-page document says: “Migration pressure is high at the external borders of the EU, but it is going down for the second year in a row in the routes in Eastern or Central Mediterranean, while migration has hugely increased in the Western Mediterranean route”. “Syria (since 2013), Iraq and Afghanistan were the three main countries the asylum-seekers in the EU originated from. Approximately, 15% of asylum-seekers came from Syria, followed by Iraq and Afghanistan; each one was 7% of requests in the EU”. In 2017, those three countries were followed by Nigeria, Pakistan, Eritrea, Albania, Bangladesh, Guinea, and Iran.
