Last year, Portugal registered 8% fewer asylum requests, according to data released by the European Union, which places the country in 18th place in the European ranking in this area.
In total, 2,849 applications were registered in 2024, while in 2023 there were 3,083, with the majority of cases relating to Senegal (15%), Gambia (14%) and Colombia (9%), according to the Annual Report on the Situation of Asylum in the European Union.
Of these requests, 785 cases were denied, an increase of 500% compared to 2023, when only 131 requests were denied.
Today, World Refugee Day, the European Union Agency for Asylum ( EUA ) takes stock of this type of international protection in Europe, at a time when the New Pact on Migration and Asylum has been adopted.
“Although the number of applications decreased by 11% in 2024, EU+ countries [European Union, Norway and Switzerland] received more than one million applications for international protection for the second year in a row,” the annual report states.
“In addition, 4.4 million displaced people from Ukraine were under temporary protection in Europe, placing continued pressure on national asylum and reception systems,” the authors say.
On the other hand, “almost four-fifths of all applications in EU+ countries were received by just five countries: Germany (237,000 applications), Spain (166,000), Italy (159,000), France (159,000) and Greece (74,000)”, with Portugal ranking 18th in the entire EU+.
And if asylum requests are analyzed in relation to population size, “Cyprus and Greece received the highest number of requests per capita”, with Portugal in the bottom half of the ranking .
“The top five nationalities of applicants for international protection in EU+ countries remained the same as in 2023: Syrians (151,000 applications), Afghans (87,000), Venezuelans (74,000), Turks (56,000) and Colombians (52,000),” the report also states.