Record number of Bangladeshis sought asylum in Europe in 2023: Report
Italy emerged as the primary destination for Bangladeshi asylum applications last year
A record number of over 40,000 people from Bangladesh sought asylum in the EU Plus (EU and neighbouring European countries) region last year.
According to the information released by the European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA), 40,332 Bangladeshi nationals submitted applications seeking asylum in the EU Plus countries.
Among them, 20,926 Bangladeshis applied for asylum from January to June, while an additional 19,406 submitted asylum applications in Europe from July to December in 2023.
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According to EUAA statistics, 2023 witnessed the highest number of Bangladeshis applying for asylum in EU Plus in the past nine years.
The organisation's website reveals that 33,731 Bangladeshis applied for asylum in 2022, followed by 19,994 in 2021, 11,269 in 2020, 14,375 in 2019, 13,340 in 2018, 19,128 in 2017 and 15,087 in 2016.
Italy emerged as the primary destination for Bangladeshi asylum applications last year, constituting 58% of all Bangladeshi asylum applications in the EU Plus region.
In 2023, 23,448 Bangladeshis sought asylum in Italy.
Notably, 69% of the asylum applications from Bangladeshi nationals in the country were awaiting settlement.
Following Italy, the highest number of Bangladeshi asylum applications were submitted for France and Romania.
France accounted for 25% of the total asylum applications from Bangladeshis in EU Plus, with 10,215 applications in the last year.
Meanwhile, Romania received 2,822 asylum applications from Bangladeshis.
Subsequently, Austria saw 1,409 applications, Greece had 640, Ireland recorded 445, Spain had 380, Cyprus received 314, Germany had 164, Malta had 118, and other countries collectively received 377 applications from Bangladeshis.
According to EUAA statistics, 32,946 of the total Bangladeshi applications were pending settlement in 2023.
Additionally, 2,946 Bangladeshis chose to withdraw their asylum applications.
The positive response rate for Bangladeshi asylum applications in Europe had remained consistently below 1% over the past 9 years.
Notably, in 2019, only 2% of Bangladeshi applicants received a positive response, deviating slightly from the usual trend.
The EU agency reported that last year marked the highest number of asylum applications in the European Union (EU) since the 2015-16 refugee crisis.
In 2023, over 1.14 million people from various countries worldwide sought international protection within the European bloc.
These numbers underscore the escalating pressures faced by the EU, exacerbated by the Russia-Ukraine war unfolding on Europe's doorstep and the rise of nationalist politics.
