Bulgaria granted asylum to 885 people in 2019, most Syrians – Eurostat
Bulgaria granted protection status to 885 people in 2019, a slight increase compared with 2018, according to figures released on April 27 by European Union statistics agency Eurostat.
Of those granted protection by Bulgaria in 2019, a total of 320 received refugee status and 565 subsidiary protection.
Bulgaria received 65 resettled refugees.
Of those granted protection status in 2019, 615 (70 per cent) were Syrians, 95 Iraqis (11 per cent) and 60 (seven per cent) were from Afghanistan.
In 2018, Bulgaria granted protection status to 760 people. Of these, 625 (83 per cent) were from Syria, 40 (five per cent) from Afghanistan and 35 (four per cent) from Iraq. In that year, Bulgaria received 20 resettled refugees.
Eurostat said that in 2019, 27 member states of the EU granted protectionstatus to 295 800 asylum seekers.
Compared to 2018(316 200), the total number of people granted protection status was down by ix per cent.
In addition, the EU received 21 200 resettled refugees in 2019.
The total number of asylum seekers granted protection in the EU in 2019 comprised of 141 100 grants of refugee status (48 per cent of all positive decisions), 82 100 grants of subsidiary protection (28 per cent) and 72 700 grants of humanitarian protection (25 per cent).
The largest group of beneficiaries of protection status in the EU in 2019 were Syrians(78 600 or 27 per cent of the total number of people granted protection status in the EU), followed by Afghans (40 000 or 14 per cent) and Venezuelans (37 500 or 13 per cent).
The number of Venezuelans rose by nearly 40 times in 2019 compared with 2018, when almost 1000 Venezuelans were granted protection status in the EU.
Among the Syrians granted protection status in the EU, 71 per cent were recorded in Germany (56 100). For the Afghans, the highest share, 41 per cent, was also recorded in Germany (16 200).
Nearly all grants of protection status to Venezuelans were recorded in Spain (35 300), 94 per cent of the EU total, Eurostat said.
(Archive photo: J Owens/VOA)
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