7240 first-time asylum applications in Bulgaria in first half of 2015
There were 7240 first-time asylum applications in Bulgaria between the beginning of January and the end of June 2015, according to figures released on September 18 by EU statistics office Eurostat.
In the first quarter, from January to March, there were 3190 first-time asylum applications, and 4050 in the second quarter of the year, from April to June.
The number of first-time asylum applications in Bulgaria, however, made up a mere fraction of the total in the EU – about 1.9 per cent, according to Eurostat.
The number of applicants per million inhabitants of the country was 562.
Of the 4050 applicants in the second quarter of 2015, a total of 1930 were from Syria (48 per cent), 1085 from Iraq (27 per cent) and 775 from Afghanistan (19 per cent), Eurostat said.
During the second quarter of 2015 , a total of 213 200 first time asylum seekers applied for protection in the EU, up by 15 per cent compared with the first quarter of 2015 and by 85 per cent compared with the second quarter of 2014, Eurostat said.
(Photo: UNHCR/D.Kashavelov)
