This briefing summarises trends in asylum applications and movement of non-EU migrants across the EEA over recent years up to September 2015. It outlines the key routes that migrants use to
travel to the EEA and the countries where some subsequently claim asylum, along with some of the outcomes of those claims.
The briefing concentrates on those EU countries receiving the highest number of asylum applications (over 20,000 each in 2014) which are Germany, Sweden, Italy, France, Hungary, UK, Austria, Netherlands and Belgium. Greece is also included where relevant given its geographical location as a key migration route. Comprehensive statistics on asylum applications in all EU Member States are routinely published by Eurostat (http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/data/database) and these statistics are used here and summarised in tables in the annex to this report.
The data does not cover movements of migrants once they have claimed asylum, or those migrants entering the European Economic Area (EEA) who are not detected on entry or who do not subsequently claim asylum.