"Over a year, the number of asylum applicants registered in the European Union (EU) has increased by 191 000 (+44%) to reach a peak of 626 000 in 2014. In particular, the number of Syrians rose by 72 000, from 50 000 in 2013 to almost 123 000 in 2014," Eurostat reported.
In Croatia, 450 foreigners applied for asylum in 2014, as against 1,075 in 2013. Of those 450 applicants, 75 were Algerians, while 65 were from Syria and 25 from Pakistan, according to Eurostat.
"In 2014, the highest number of applicants was registered by far in Germany (202,700 applicants, or 32% of total applicants)."
Germany is followed by Sweden (81,200 or 13%), Italy (64,600 or 10%), France (62,800 or 10%) and Hungary (42,800 or 7%).
"It should be noted that these five Member States registered different trends last year. The number of asylum applicants in 2014 more than doubled compared with 2013 in Italy (+143%) and Hungary (+126%) and increased significantly in Germany (+60%) and Sweden (+50%), while it decreased by 5% in France."
"Compared with the population of each Member State, the highest rates of registered applicants were recorded in Sweden (8.4 applicants per thousand inhabitants), well ahead of Hungary (4.3), Austria (3.3), Malta (3.2), Denmark (2.6) and Germany (2.5). In contrast, the lowest rates were observed in Portugal, Slovakia and Romania. In 2014, there were 1.2 asylum applicants per thousand inhabitants in the EU."
Syria continued to be the main country of citizenship of asylum applicants. Last year, every fifth asylum seeker came from that Middle East country hit by the war.
According to Eurostat, 122,800 asylum applicants, or 20% of the total number of applicants came from Syria.
"Of the 122,800 Syrians who applied for asylum in the EU in 2014, around 60% were registered in two Member States: Germany (41,100) and Sweden (30, 800). Syrians represented also the main citizenship of asylum seekers in Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Spain, Cyprus, the Netherlands, Austria, Romania and Slovenia."
Afghanistan ranked second with 41,300 asylum applicants, or 7% of the total number of applicants. "Of the 41,300 Afghans seeking asylum protection in the EU in 2014, 9,700 were registered in Germany and 8,800 in Hungary."
Kosovo, the newest European country ranked third in terms of asylum seekers, with 37,900 applicants (or 6% of the EU total) in 2014. More than half applied for asylum in Hungary (21,500).
Last year, in the EU, 45% of first instance decisions made on asylum applications were positive.
In Croatia, first-instance decisions were made for 235 applications, and 25 of them were positive. Thus, five Somali asylum seekers, five Nigerians and five citizens of Belarus were granted asylum in Croatia in 2014, according to first-instance rulings.