The number of new asylum-seekers within the European Union and Switzerland and Norway fell significantly in the first half of the year. By the end of June, the EU Asylum Agency had counted almost 400,000 new applications, the agency announced on Monday. +Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox Compared to the first half of 2024, this represents a decrease of 114,000 or 23%. The statistics include figures from all EU countries as well as Switzerland and Norway. There were a total of 399,000 applications in the 29 countries. France (78,000), Spain (77,000), Germany (70,000) and Italy (64,000) were far and away in the lead. In contrast to previous years, Germany was no longer number one. + Asylum in Switzerland: the most important figures at a glance The authority attributed the decline in particular to the fall of Syria's ruler Bashar al-Assad in December. For the first time in a decade, most new asylum-seekers (25,000) no longer came from the Mediterranean country ...
