Number of asylum applications rises to nearly 50,000

The number of asylum applications has risen to nearly 50,000 this year, a milepost that can still be passed in the last week of the year. This means that more applications have been filed than last year.

In total, around 49,600 applications were filed in the first 51 weeks of 2023. Last year, approximately 48,600 asylum seekers came to the Netherlands in 52 weeks.

According to weekly figures from the Ministry of Justice and Security, approximately 1,200 people applied for asylum last week. During the same week last year, the Netherlands registered around 600 asylum seekers.

For the twelfth week in a row, the inflow was higher than in the same week last year. During those 12 weeks there were more than 15,000 applications, compared to almost 12,000 in the same period a year earlier.

The influx of asylum seekers does not only concern new applications, but also, for example, travelers who followed a relative. These are typically people allowed to go to the Netherlands to join a family member who has been granted asylum.

Since the beginning of the year, the number of asylum applications was virtually the same compared to last year for a long time. Fewer asylum seekers came to the Netherlands this past summer than in the summer of 2022.

That situation reversed in the autumn. October and November grew more popular, which remained the case in December. By comparison, the inflow clearly decreased in December 2022 compared to that year's trend

The figures presented are rounded off, and the actual totals may deviate slightly.