Number of asylum requests at lowest point in over a year

The number of people applying for asylum in the Netherlands has fallen for the third month in a row and is at the lowest point in 13 months. It fits the trend in Europe. Far fewer people seem to be making the sea crossing from Lybia or Tunisia. The authorities say they do not know why, AD reports.

In June, 2,040 people submitted their first asylum application in the Netherlands - the lowest number in 13 months, figures from the Immigration and Naturalization Service (IND) show. A year earlier, there were 3,039 first applications. The total number of asylum applications, including second applications and family reunification applications, has also been declining for several months.

The IND told the AD that the decline is “difficult to explain.” The service said there was a striking decline in the number of Syrians applying for asylum. They are still the largest group of asylum seekers, but their number is at its lowest point in 13 months.

Despite the decline in recent months, the total number of asylum applications this year is still higher than during the same period in 2023 and 2022. Nearly 70,000 people are currently living in shelters and emergency shelters throughout the Netherlands. About 20,000 have already obtained refugee status and residency permits but are waiting for suitable housing to become available so that they can move out of the asylum centers.

The number of asylum seekers arriving in Europe has also been declining for months. The International Organization for Migration registered over 76,000 arrivals in Europe in the first half of this year, compared to almost 300,000 in all of 2023. The European border control organization Frontex reported “up to a third fewer attempts to enter Europe illegally.”

There are many possible causes for the decline in the number of asylum seekers making the sea crossing from Libya or Tunisia to Europe. There have been many storms in the Mediterranean in recent months, for example. The European Union has also concluded agreements with Tunisia and Egypt, giving these countries billions of euros to prevent asylum seekers from crossing to Europe.

After the EU deal with Tunisia, international media reported that Tunisia had rounded up hundreds of asylum seekers and dumped them in the desert. According to AD, the Libyan coast guard is also known to detain, assault, and extort asylum seekers taken from the sea. There are also continuing reports of Greek and Bulgarian border guards pushing asylum seekers back across the border into Turkey.