First-time asylum seeker applications to the European Union have fallen to a five-year low, according to new data published by Eurostat. In May 2026, the most recent available data, there were 42,525 asylum applications to the EU. That figure is almost a third of the 114,805 applications made in October 2023, when nearly one-fifth of applicants were from Syria.

Asylum applications to the EU have hit a five-year low

Monthly number of first-time asylum applications to the European Union since July   2021

Eurostat data also showed that Venezuelans were the largest group seeking asylum in the bloc, with 4,465 applications in May, followed by those from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Sudan. Italy, Spain, France and Germany were the largest recipients of applications, making up 75% of the total.

The news comes as nations across the EU continue to implement tougher laws aimed at limiting the number of asylum seekers entering the bloc. In 2024, the Dutch government announced that it would seek to limit asylum permits in order to decrease migration overall. Leaders across Europe then agreed to implement tougher measures to decrease migration and asylum applications, such as tightening visa rules and border controls.

Last year, Giorgia Meloni’s government in Italy outlined plans to turn empty migration centers in Albania into repatriation hubs for failed asylum seekers, in a bid to limit the number of applicants entering the country. Italy had consistently high asylum seeker numbers over the past five years, peaking in 2024 at roughly 159,000, before a slight decline in the following year at 134,000. In May last year, Germany’s Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt announced that the country would reject undocumented migrants, including asylum seekers, at the country’s border. The policy has led to Germany recording its lowest number of asylum applications since 2012.

The debate around asylum seekers in the EU gained international attention late last month when an estimated 80,000 people crossed the border from Morocco to Ceuta, a Spanish territory in North Africa, within a week. On 31 July alone, roughly 49,000 migrants crossed the border, with many attempting to claim asylum in Spain. Within 48 hours of the first mass crossing, over 48,000 had returned voluntarily to Morocco, and in the following days, Spanish authorities removed thousands more. However, hundreds remain in processing at migrant return hubs.

In response, Meloni suspended Italy’s freedom of movement with Spain, while Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen called for Spain to be removed from Europe’s Schengen Zone altogether. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez criticised Meloni, stating that “this was not the time to be divided” and that the European Union should be “united”. In the past, Sánchez has stated that helping asylum seekers is a “duty”, while claiming Europe needs migration to remain “prosperous”.