Asylum applications in the European Union, Norway and Switzerland decreased by around 12% in 2024, according to a report by European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA).

The Malta-based agency recorded just over 1 million initial applications last year in the 27 EU member nations, along with Norway and Switzerland, compared to 1.14 million in 2023, based on the report seen by German news agency DPA and newspaper Welt am Sonntag.

Germany remains most popular migrant destination

The majority of applications covered by the report for last year were submitted in Germany, amounting to a total of 235,925 initial applications, according to EUAA data reported by the Welt am Sonntag.

However, Germany also saw a decrease of 30.2% in asylum applications compared to 2023, DPA cited the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) as saying.

According to the new EUAA figures, most people seeking asylum in the EU came from Syria (15%), Afghanistan (8.7%), Venezuela (7.3%) and Turkey (5.5%).

The BAMF said that most of the initial applications received in Germany were from people from Syria, Afghanistan and Turkey.

Spain, with 165,398 applicants, ranked second in the list of European countries with the most asylum applications, followed by France (158,512) and Italy (154,824).

In the same period, Hungary received only 29 new asylum applications in 2024. Budapest has come into repeated conflict with Brussels over its refusal to take in migrants.

Migration is also a key issue for voters going into the German election in February, with the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) gaining ground with its anti-immigrant rhetoric.

dvv/ab (dpa, Reuters)