The number of asylum seekers in Austria has decreased significantly in the first half of 2024, as shown by the asylum statistics on Friday, according to the Austrian Press Agency APA.
In total, exactly 13,479 asylum applications were filed in the period from January to June. This is 42 percent less than in the same period in 2023.
According to the APA, asylum seekers were particularly young at the beginning of the year and a large proportion of them were women. The reason for this was the sharp increase in family reunifications, and a particularly large number of asylum seekers came from Syria this year. After the second strongest group, the Afghans.
The Interior Ministry attributes this development to four factors - on the one hand, to the continued controls at border points and border regions in Austria, on the other hand to the fight against smuggling on the routes abroad, for example by Austrian police officers in Serbia and Montenegro, and also to international cooperation, such as the end of visas - bringing freedom to Indians and Tunisians in Serbia, and finally faster procedures in this country.
A report by the Austria Media website indicated that asylum applications in Austria recorded a significant increase in October, as 2,459 applications were submitted, an increase of nearly 600 applications compared to September, but compared to October last year, the number of applications witnessed a significant decrease of 76%. Despite this monthly increase, the total applications this year decreased by 61% compared to last year.
Austria was previously among the top three countries in terms of the number of asylum applications per capita. However, it dropped to seventh place during the first half of this year, with Cyprus, Greece and Ireland taking the top three places.
The countries with the lowest number of asylum applications are the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary.
By the end of October, about 22,000 asylum applications were submitted in Austria, 58% of which were male.
Family reunification
The report indicated that more than half of these applications were submitted by people under the age of 18, partly due to the increase in the number of family reunification cases at the beginning of the year, which has witnessed a significant decline in recent months.
According to the aforementioned source, the largest number of asylum applications were submitted by Syrian refugees, amounting to more than 12,000 applications.
With regard to the decisions issued, more than 14,900 people were granted a positive decision regarding asylum, while about 6,600 people were granted “subsidiary protection”, and 1,200 people were granted humanitarian residence.
European actions
Regarding the situation in Europe, the report pointed to the continued pressure on the land and sea borders with Turkey, where the relevant European agencies recorded an increase in illegal crossings by 14%, reaching about 57,000 cases.
In contrast, illegal crossings through the Balkans region decreased by 80%. As for the deportation figures, the total number of deportations reached 11,231 cases, including 5,433 voluntary departures and 5,798 forced deportations.
According to the website of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Austria hosts about 146,000 refugees and others with subsidiary protection status, and more than 18,000 asylum seekers. Syrians constitute the majority of refugees (58,000), followed by Afghans (41,000), who are also the first nationalities in terms of asylum seekers.
The number of Syrians residing in Austria, fleeing the war in their homeland, increased more than eightfold between 2015 and 2024, according to official data, reaching 95,180 people last January.
Some ٍ7.2 million people have sought refuge from the fighting inside Syria while millions more have fled the country.
The United Nations has said that this year 16.7 million people in Syria will require some type of humanitarian assistance or protection -- the largest number since the conflict erupted in 2011.
About 90 percent of Syrians live in poverty, according to UN figures.
Reporting by Faris Rifai
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