More than 1.14 million people applied for asylum in the EU in 2023, according to annual figures released by the European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA).

It is the largest number of applications in the European Union and the closely aligned EU countries Norway and Switzerland since displaced people arrived in the bloc en masse from 2015 through 2016.

Germany received 29% of the asylum applications, with more than 334,000 people seeking protection in 2023. The nationalist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has used the topic of migration to surge to 19% support in the country.

France (167,000), Spain (162,000) and Italy (136,000) followed as the biggest recipients of applications. With 12,000 applications, Cyprus received the most relative to its population of 1.2 million.

Continuing a yearslong trend, Syrian nationals submitted the most applications in 2023, with 181,000. Afghanistan remained the second largest country of origin, with 114,000 applications from nationals in 2023.

Last year also saw an 82% increase of in the number of Turkish citizens applying for international protection in the EU, at more than 100,000.

The EUAA acknowledges that the numbers in its annual report do not "paint a complete picture" across the European Union.

The 4.4 million........

© Deutsche Welle