During the second quarter of 2015 (from April to June 2015), 213,200 first time asylum seekers applied for protection in the European Union (EU), up by 15 percent compared with the first quarter of 2015 and by 85 percent compared with the second quarter of 2014.
In particular, the number of Syrians and Afghans rose considerably to reach almost 44,000 and 27,000 respectively, with Syrians responsible for around 21 percent of all requests, while Afghans accounted for about 13 percent of the total.
They represent the two main citizenships of first time asylum applicants in the EU over the second quarter of 2015, accounting for a third of all first time applicants.
Kosovars, who were the top citizenship of first time asylum applicants in the first three months of 2015, have seen their number drop from almost 50,000 during the first quarter of 2015 to just over 10,000 in the second quarter of 2015.
In Portugal, the number of asylum seekers during this period rose to 250, an increase of 39 percent on the previous quarter. The majority came from the Ukraine (120), followed by Mali (30) and China with 25 requests.
The highest number of first time applicants was registered in Germany (80,900 first time applicants, or 38 percent of total first time applicants in the EU), followed by Hungary (32,700, or 15 percent), Austria (17,400, or eight percent), Italy (14,900, or seven percent), France (14,700, or seven percent) and Sweden (14,300, or seven percent).
Compared with the previous quarter, the number of first time asylum applicants in the second quarter of 2015 notably jumped in the Netherlands (159 percent), Latvia (123 percent), Austria (79 percent), Finland (67 percent) and Denmark (66 percent).