On the occasion of the World Refugee Day on 20 June 2013, the Statistical Office of the European Union released the data on the results of asylum decisions in 2012.

The press release from 18 June 2013 highlights inter alia the following conclusions:

In 2012, 407.300 decisions were made on asylum applications in the EU27

In total, of the 102 700 persons who were granted protection status in 2012, 51 400 persons were granted refugee status (50% of all positive decisions), 37 100 subsidiary protection (36%) and 14 200 authorisation to stay for humanitarian reasons (14%). In addition, the EU27 Member States received 4500 resettled refugees

Around a quarter of EU27 asylum decisions at the first instance resulted in protection status:

The rate of recognition of asylum applicants, i.e. the share of positive decisions in the total number of decisions, was 28% for first instance decisions, split between refugee and subsidiary protection status (25%) and humanitarian status (3%).

Syrians, Afghans and Somalis became the largest groups granted protection status in the EU27

Syrians became in 2012 the single largest group of persons granted protection status in the EU27. Of the 18 700 Syrians granted protection status in the EU27, more than 70% were recorded in two Member States: Germany (8 400) and Sweden (5 000). Of the 13 500 Afghans granted protection, 3200 were registered in Germany, 2 800 in Sweden, 1 900 in Austria and 1 500 in Belgium, and of the 8 100 Somalis, 2 100 were in Sweden and 1 100 each in Malta and the Netherlands.