Cyprus granted protection to a total of 1,315 asylum seekers in 2019 – 1,115 of whom are Syrians, according to figures published by Eurostat on Monday. This corresponds to 1,500 per million of the population. Greece topped the table with 1,735 per million of the population, followed by Austria with 1,550. Germany granted the largest number at 116,2300 which corresponds to 1,400 per million of its population. Hungary, Poland and Slovakia had the lowest shares with only five per million of population. Overall, the European Union of 27 Member States granted protection status to 295,800 asylum seekers. Compared to 2018 (316,200), the total number of people granted protection status is down by 6%. In addition, the EU received 21,200 resettled refugees in 2019. The total number of asylum seekers granted protection in the EU in 2019 comprised 141,00 grants of refugee status (48% of all positive decisions), 82,100 grants of subsidiary protection (28%) and 72,700 grants of humanitarian protection (25%). The largest group of beneficiaries of protection status in the EU in 2019 remained Syrians (78,600 or 27% of the total number of people granted protection status in the EU), followed by Afghans (40,000 or 14%) and Venezuelans (37,500 or 13%). The number of Venezuelans rose by nearly 40 times in 2019 compared with 2018, when almost 1,000 Venezuelans were granted protection status in the EU. Among the Syrians granted protection status in the EU, 71% were recorded in Germany (56,100). For Afghans, the highest share (41%) was also recorded in Germany (16,200). Nearly all grants of protection status to Venezuelans were recorded in Spain (35,300), 94% of the EU total. In 2019, the highest number of people granted protection status was registered in Germany (116,200 or 39% of all positive decisions), ahead of France (42,100 or 14%), Spain (38,500 or 13%) and Italy (31,000 or 10%). Combined, these four member states totalled over three quarters of all positive decisions issued in the EU. In 2019, 540,800 first instance decisions on asylum applications were made in EU member states, and a further 293,200 final decisions following an appeal. Decisions made at the first instance resulted in 206,000 people being granted protection status, while a further 89,800 received protection status on appeal.
The recognition rate, i.e. the share of positive decisions among the total number of decisions, was 38% for first instance decisions in the EU. Among the twenty main citizenships of asylum applicants on which decisions were taken at first instance in 2019, recognition rates in the EU ranged from 4% for citizens of Georgia, 96% for Venezuelans, 85% for Syrians and 81% for Eritreans.