New data from the European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA) has found that asylum applications to the 27-nation bloc fell 23 percent during the first six months of 2025 after a significant drop in Syrians seeking asylum in Europe since the fall of longtime leader Bashar al-Assad last December.
Syrians, who had been the largest group of asylum seekers in the past decade, sharply dropped to fourth place in May, the EUAA found. “Monthly Syrian asylum applications fell from roughly 16,000 in October 2024 to just 3,100 in May 2025, a steep fivefold decrease in just seven months,” the agency said on Monday.
“This downturn, the like of which has not been seen since the initial wave of COVID-19 … is likely not due to any asylum policy changes in the EU+,” it added, referring to all 27 members of the bloc, as well as Switzerland and Norway.
Since al-Assad’s ouster, the interim Syrian authorities have pushed a platform of stability and reconstruction for the war-ravaged society.
Though the fledgling government of President Ahmed al-Sharaa has contended with eruptions of violence in Suwayda in southern Syria and Israeli attacks, there is newfound hope, leading to an increasing number of Syrians making the journey to return to their country.
According to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), as of mid-May, “more than 500,000 Syrians are estimated to have crossed back into Syria since the fall of the Assad government”.
At the height of the ruinous civil war, an exodus of millions of Syrians fled to neighbouring countries and more than a million to Europe.
With Syrians no longer being the largest application group for the EU, Venezuelans have now emerged as the largest asylum seekers.
According to the report, the rise of applications from Venezuela is driven by multiple factors, including a “severe economic and political crisis” and evolving United States immigration policies, which could change migration movements.
In the first six months of the year, the second-highest applicant group was asylum seekers from Afghanistan.
For applications to specific destinations, Germany, which had once been the leading destination for asylum seekers, has been receiving fewer applications than Spain, Italy and France.
Overall, EU+ countries received 399,000 asylum applications in the first six months of this year.
