Number Of Asylum Applications Continues To Decline

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Decline in Applications

In the first quarter of 2019, 30 percent fewer applications for asylum were filed in Austria than in the same period of the previous year. The number of open cases has also fallen.

The number of asylum applications continues to decline. In the first quarter of 2019, 2,881 applications were submitted, around 30 percent fewer than in the same period of 2018 (4,050). Top countries of origin are still Syria (631) ahead of Afghanistan (597), Iran (189), Iraq (186) and the Russian Federation (182).

The number of open cases has also fallen and currently stands at around 34,000. As of April 1, there were around 39,000 persons in primary care, compared to 61,000 at the beginning of 2018.

In the first three months of this year, 12,000 final rulings were passed, and 5,000 were asylum-related, with 50 percent positive and 50 percent negative. 2,300 decisions concerned subsidiary protection, of which 1,700 were negative and 600 positive. The humanitarian residence was granted even less frequently – of 3,600 decisions, 3,180 were negative.

For Interior Minister Herbert Kickl (FPÖ), the falling number of asylum applications is “no reason for us to sit back and relax”. He announced “consistent outlander deliveries and fast procedures” as well as the maintenance of border controls. In addition, it is necessary to set the clear signal among the EU member states to smugglers that they “can not come through”.

Kickl also said in an opinion that “asylum procedures” take only about three months and even less for “his agency”. You can see that also with the basic supply numbers. Asylum seekers in basic care, for example, have less than 3,000 cases pending before the Federal Office for Aliens and Asylum (BFA), but in the second instance, 21,000. In total, less than 5,000 of the open asylum procedures are in the first instance, but in the second instance more than 29,000.