A person stands in an improvised tent camp close to the refugee camp of Moria within the Greek island of Lesbos on June 21, 2020 | Aris Messinis/AFP b

Pandemic halted rise in asylum purposes in Europe

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2020-06-25 17:37:25

A person stands in an improvised tent camp close to the refugee camp of Moria within the Greek island of Lesbos on June 21, 2020 | Aris Messinis/AFP by way of Getty Photos

Asylum purposes within the EU and 5 different European international locations rose in 2019 and the primary two months of 2020 earlier than the coronavirus pandemic led to a steep drop, the EU’s asylum company mentioned on Thursday.

In accordance with the European Asylum Assist Workplace (EASO), the entire quantity of asylum purposes throughout the EU, the UK, Norway, Iceland, Switzerland and Liechtenstein stood at almost 740,000 by the top of 2019 — amounting to 1 third of all international asylum purposes.

Total, asylum purposes rose by 11 % on an annual foundation in 2019, making it the primary yr since 2015 that noticed a rise, partly as a result of “a pointy rise [of 103 percent since 2018] in candidates from Venezuela” and 214 % from Colombia.

This yr appeared set to comply with go well with, with purposes rising by 16 % in January and February, however the coronavirus disaster intercepted that development: The pandemic has led to a drop of 87 % in latest months, EASO mentioned.