Mass refusal of asylum applications for Albanians in Europe, Switzerland accepted the most

 Albanian emigrants leaving for Germany (archive)

 Although the number of Albanians seeking asylum is higher than in all other European countries, their applications to the European Union and other countries have a very high probability of being rejected.

According to Eurostat data, in 2019 only 1470 asylum applications received a positive decision or 7.2% of the total. In total, about 20,000 applications were reviewed.

The highest number of positive decisions was from France, with 820 or 55% of the total positive decisions. France also had the highest number of requests with about 11 thousand (see table below). Followed by Great Britain with 395 and Italy with 125.

 Graph of the number of Albanian asylum applications by countries

In relation to the percentage of applications received, the first place is occupied by Switzerland, which has given a positive decision for 40% of applications (20 positives out of 50 total applications), followed by Britain with 23.5%, Austria with 18.2%, Ireland with 13%. In Ireland, Albanians are the third to receive protection status.

Such countries as the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Sweden have not had any positive decisions. In Sweden, where out of 480 requests, none received a positive response.

 Graph of positive responses for Albanians after seeking asylum

Europe

In 2019, the European Union of 27 Member States (EU) granted protection status to 295,800 asylum seekers. Compared to 2018 (316,200), the total number of persons granted protection status was 6% higher. Moreover, the EU accepted 21,200 refugees distributed in 2019. This information is provided by Eurostat, the European Union's statistics office.

The total number of asylum seekers equipped with EU protection in 2019 consisted of 141,100 granting refugee status (48% of all positive decisions), 82,100 auxiliary protection grants (28%) and 72,700 humanitarian protection grants (25%).

The largest group of beneficiaries of EU protection status in 2019 remained Syrians (78,600 or 27% of the total number of persons with EU protection status), followed by Afghans (40,000 or 14%) and Venezuelans. (37,500 or 13%). The number of Venezuelans increased by almost 40 times in 2019 compared to 2018, when almost 1,000 Venezuelans were granted EU protection status.

Among Syrians who were granted EU protection status, 71% were registered in Germany (56,100). For Afghans, the highest 41% were registered in Germany (16,200). Almost all Venezuelan defense status grants were registered in Spain (35,300), 94% of the total EU.