Asylum

Briefing 23-04-2012

Asylum is a form of protection given by a State on its territory to a person who is threatened by persecution for reasons such as race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular group or political opinion in his or her country of citizenship or residence. In the EU, Member States have committed to establishing a Common European Asylum System (CEAS). Under this system different legislative measures to harmonise common minimum standards have been adopted. The most important relate to the living conditions of the asylum-seekers (Directive 2003/9/EC); to harmonising the definition of refugee (Directive 2004/83/EC); to reducing differences between MS in terms of national procedure (Directive 2005/85/EC) and the “Dublin” Regulation that gives criteria for deciding which state is responsible for an asylum claim. The Statistical Spotlight aims to show the number of asylum seekers - where they seek asylum and where they come from - as well as the number of first instance decisions on asylum.