Spain rejects two out of every three asylum requests

AROUND two thirds of all asylum applications submitted to Spanish authorities in 2017 were rejected, according to a refugee NGO.

Last year was a record year in terms of the number of requests, with Spain receiving around 31,120 applications.

That is double last year’s amount, according to the Spanish Commission of Refugee Aid (CEAR) and European Union data.

Requests for asylum made to the country made up around four per cent of the EU total. Applications made to Germany, Italy and France were higher at 222,560, 128,850 and 98,635, respectively.

Almost a third of all applications submitted to Spain came from Venezuelans, at 10,350. Requests from Syrian citizens stood at 4,225, followed by Columbians at 2,460, Ukrainians, 2,265, Palestinians and Algerians both at 1,165, Salvadorans, 1,120, Hondurans, 970, Cameroonians, 750 and Moroccans, 525.

Requests from male applicants made up 58 per cent of the total while those from women made up 48 per cent.

A total of 595 requests were resolved by granting the applicant refugee status, out of the 13,350 applications resolved.

Around 4,080 applicants were granted subsidiary protection status. That means they were not granted asylum but were allowed to stay in Spain due to the risk of them facing serious harm if they returned to their home country.

The number of requests pending resolution, when the figures for 2017 are included, now stands at a total of 38,880.