Germany, France, Sweden, the United Kingdom and Belgium register 70% of all applicants
In 2012, the highest number of applicants was registered in Germany (77 500 applicants, or 23% of total applicants), followed by France (60 600, or 18%), Sweden (43 900, or 13%), the United Kingdom (28 200, or 8%) and Belgium (28 100, or 8%). These five Member States accounted for more than 70% of all applicants registered in the EU27 in 2012.
Compared with the population of each Member State, the highest rates of applicants registered were recorded in Malta (5 000 applicants per million inhabitants), Sweden (4 600), Luxembourg (3 900), Belgium (2 500) and Austria (2 100), and the lowest in Portugal (30), Estonia and Spain (both 55) and the Czech Republic (70).
In some Member States, a large proportion of the applicants came from a single country. The Member States with the highest concentrations were Malta (60% of the applicants came from Somalia), Poland (57% from Russia), Latvia (51% from Georgia), Lithuania (48% from Georgia), Estonia (45% from Georgia) and Hungary (41% from Afghanistan).
More than a quarter of first instance decisions were positive
In 2012 in the EU27, 73% of first instance decisions made on asylum applications were rejections, while 14% of applicants were granted refugee status, 10% subsidiary protection and 2% authorisation to stay for humanitarian reasons. It should be noted that first instance decisions made in 2012 may refer to applications registered in previous years.
If the proportion of positive decisions varies considerably among Member States, it should be kept in mind that the country of origin of applicants also differs greatly between Member States.
