Nearly 25,000 people applied for asylum in the Netherlands last year, an increase of 80 percent compared to 2020. This is apparent from figures published Monday by Statistics Netherlands (CBS). Part of the increase is due to the more flexible corona measures: asylum seekers were confronted less often with corona travel restrictions in 2021, such as closed borders. The advance of the Taliban in Afghanistan also played a role.
Last year, 24,740 asylum seekers submitted a first asylum application, the highest number since 2015. The Immigration and Naturalization Service (IND) received many applications in particular last autumn, with a peak of almost four thousand in September. This relatively high number was partly due to the troubled situation in Afghanistan. In mid-August, Taliban fighters took power there, after which many Afghans fled.
Compared to a year earlier, no fewer than eight times as many Afghans in the Netherlands applied for asylum in 2021, and 88 percent of these applications were submitted in the last two quarters of the year. Afghans did not form the largest group of asylum seekers, as in previous years, they were Syrians. Nearly 34 percent of all asylum applications in 2021 were made by people of Syrian nationality. In addition, relatively many Turks, Yemenis and Algerians also knocked on the door of the IND.
Also read: This is what the flight of the Afghans looks like
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