In 2022, the number of Russians applying for asylum in EU countries, as well as Norway and Switzerland, increased two and a half times compared to the previous year. This should of the EU Migration Agency’s annual report on the asylum situation.
According to the document, in 2022, Russians filed 16.9 thousand asylum applications in the EU, of which 13.6 thousand are primary applications. For the whole of 2021, Russians submitted 6.9 thousand applications.
In total, EU countries, Norway and Switzerland received 966,000 asylum applications last year, about double the previous year. These figures do not take into account the 4 million applications for temporary protection of Ukrainian citizens in the EU, notes the Migration Office.
The list of countries whose citizens have filed the most asylum applications in Europe includes:
Syria (132,000 people), Afghanistan (129,000), Turkey (55,000), Venezuela (51,000), Colombia (43,000).
A record number of asylum applications have been filed by Georgian, Moroccan, Tunisian and Egyptian citizens. The Migration Agency did not specify which European countries received the most applications in 2022. However, in an internal EU report on migration, which refers to Associated Press (AP), the top five included Germany, France, Spain, Austria and Italy.
Most asylum seekers enter the EU legally, mostly by air on tourist visas, AP notes. Some of them illegally crossed the land and sea borders of the European Union, mainly through the Western Balkans and the Mediterranean Sea.
In September 2022, the Council of the EU suspended the visa facilitation agreement with Russia. The process of obtaining a visa for Russians has become longer and more complicated, the visa fee has increased from 35 to 80 euros, the processing time for applications has increased to 15 days. At the same time, the list of documents required to obtain a visa has grown and the chances of obtaining a multiple-entry visa have decreased.
After the start of the partial mobilization in Russia, some European countries, notably Germany, France and Spain, declared themselves ready to accept Russians fleeing conscription.
