26,840 in Austria

410,000 people received protection status in the EU in 2023

In 2023, almost 409,500 people received protection in one of the 27 EU countries. This corresponds to an increase of around seven percent compared to the previous year. In Austria, 26,840 people were granted protection, also an increase. 23,200 people received first-instance decisions. This means that they were granted asylum on their first application.

Throughout the EU, there were around 358,200 positive first-instance decisions, plus a good 51,300 positive decisions following an appeal. At 32 percent, Syrians were the largest group of positive applications, followed by Afghans (18 percent) and Venezuelans (ten percent).

In 43 percent of positive cases, the applicants were granted refugee status, 35 percent were granted subsidiary protection and 22 percent were granted humanitarian status.

Increase of 22 percent in subsidiary protection
The increase compared to 2022 was primarily due to a 22% increase in subsidiary protection. Subsidiary protection is granted if refugee protection under the Geneva Convention cannot be granted but there is a threat of serious harm in the country of origin.

53 percent positive in the first instance
All types of protection taken together, 53 percent of decisions in the first instance were positive. In addition, 27 percent of decisions at second or final instance were positive. There are major differences depending on nationality.

Syrians and Venezuelans received protection status in 94 percent of cases in the first instance, while this was the case for Afghans in 80 percent of cases. Syrians and Afghans also had an above-average chance of being granted protection status in the second instance.

The statistics published on Friday deal with decisions in asylum procedures. Eurostat published the figures on asylum applications around a month ago.

In 2023, 20 percent more people applied for asylum in the European Union than in 2022. Just over one million non-EU citizens applied for international protection in an EU country for the first time.