Have there been “eight million first asylum requests made on European soil in 10 years”, as Marion Maréchal asserts?

If the figure of eight million asylum requests put forward by the candidate Reconquest! to the Europeans is correct, it is important to remember that less than half of these requests are accepted and that for the most part, they concern families fleeing war zones.

According to Marion Maréchal, head of the Reconquest list! in the European elections, we must strengthen Europe’s borders to cope with massive immigration, the proof, according to her with this figure, “in 10 years, there have been eight million first asylum requests made on European soil“, she said. Behind this real figure, it is important to remember the acceptance rate of these requests and the profile of the applicants.

The figure put forward by Marion Maréchal is true, according to figures from the European Union asylum agency (page in English), over the last ten years, the EU has recorded around eight million first-time asylum applications. Except that in detail, we observe that less than one request in two is accepted, it is even one request in three in certain years, such as between 2018 and 2021.

We see that the rate of approved applications varies enormously depending on the applicants’ countries of origin. For example, in 2023, nine out of ten asylum requests from Syrians were accepted at first instance, compared to less than one in ten for Colombian or Moroccan applicants.

We observe a lot of disparities between the approval rates of asylum applications, it depends on the profile of the applicants and especially their country of origin. These are people who are mostly fleeing wars, authoritarian regimes or persecution to which they claim to be subject in their country. This is also one of the criteria to be respected for your request to have a chance of being accepted.

If we look at the number of asylum seekers over the last ten years, we observe peaks depending on the area of ​​conflict or political instability. For example, in 2015 and 2016, just over 700,000 Syrians fled the authoritarian regime of Bashar El-Assad to Europe and applied for asylum. In those two years, 97% of their requests were accepted by the European Union.

Among the countries most represented among asylum seekers, we find Syria, Afghanistan, Turkey and even Venezuela. Behind each of these countries, a specific situation which explains these numerous requests. For example, since 2021, the number of asylum seekers from Afghanistan has doubled and this can be explained by the return to power of the Taliban who strictly impose Sharia laws in the country.