(Politico) Almost 912,000 people applied for international protection for the first time in the EU in 2024, falling 13 percent from the previous year.
It is the first decline in first-time applications since 2020, though the figure remains substantially higher than the pre-Covid average, according to new Eurostat data.
Migration politics have been roiling the bloc as mainstream parties are embracing harsher rhetoric on asylum-seekers and immigrants in a flailing bid to contain the rise of far-right populist movements in the polls.
Syrian citizens accounted for 16 percent of the total number of first applications, followed by Venezuelans and Afghans.
