BULGARIA GRANTED PROTECTION TO 5 575 ASYLUM SEEKERS IN 2015

Bulgaria granted protection status to 5 575 people in 2015, 5 320 of which were Syrians, Eurostat data shows. The next largest group were from Afghanistan (160 people) and stateless persons (95).

The report also says that Bulgaria granted 5,605 positive decisions on asylum applications, of which 4,705 cases were on refugee status and 895 received subsidiary protection.

Bulgaria has the highest share of positive first-instance asylum decisions in 2015 – 91%. In the cases when refusals by the Bulgarian authorities were appealed, half of the decisions were revoked.

The 28 Member States of the European Union (EU) granted protection status to 333 350 asylum seekers in 2015, an increase of 72% compared with 2014. Since 2008, a total of nearly 1.1 million asylum seekers have been granted protection status in the EU.

In 2014, half of the people recognized as refugees in EU were from Syria, followed by Eritreans and Iraqis. More than half of the Syrian refugees, who arrived in EU in 2015, were recorded in Germany. The German authorities report the highest increase in asylum applications received – by 212% compared to the data from 2014. The second largest increase of asylum applications was recorded in Austria – 77%.