Changing Influx of Asylum Seekers 2014 - 2016

In the period from 2014 to2016 EU Member States and Norway experienced an extensive influx of incoming applicants for international protection. To illustrate, the number of 600 000 asylum seekers in EU and Norway in 2014 rose to 1.32 million in 2015 and was sustained at that level throughout 2016 (1.26 million applications).

This mass influx led to backlogs in registrations of international protection applications, pressures on reception centres, and other operational and organizational challenges. EMN recently published the Synthesis Report of the Study covering this topic and which includes contributions from 25 EMN National Contact Points.

All EMN members reported that they have strengthened cooperation among relevant stakeholders at national level, as well as enhanced cooperation with other EMN members at bilateral, multilateral, regional and European level. The Study presents national measures in the areas of border control and law enforcement, reception services, registration and asylum procedures and integration measures. Although all these measures had to be downscaled or adjusted due to decreased inflows of international protection applicants from mid-2016 onwards, this situation provided better conditions for ensuring future preparedness and continuous and constructive cooperation at different levels. 

In addition to the EMN Inform published for this Study, EMN flash has been prepared providing a short introduction and overview of the most important findings and statistics from the Study.

Study can be downloaded here:

Changing Influx of Asylum Seekers 2014 - 2016