Please enable JavaScript in your browser for better use of the website.
According to the European Union Asylum Agency (EUAA), the number of asylum applications in Portugal has dropped by 37 percent in 2025 compared to the previous year. New asylum cases are down across Europe for the second year in a row.
The EUAA said that the overall number of asylum applications lodged in Portugal fell from 2,797 in 2024 to 1,763 last year. This makes up 0.2 percent of all asylum applications in EU+ countries, which in addition to the 27 member states also includes Norway, Switzerland, Iceland, and Liechtenstein.
Meanwhile, the asylum approval rate at the first-instance level fell by 24 percent compared to the previous year.
The three main countries of origin of people applying for protection in Portugal in 2025 were Colombia (14 percent), China (10 percent), and Angola (9 percent). However, the nationalities with the highest approval rates were Afghans (42 percent), Syrians (13 percent), and Eritreans (5 percent).
Read Also
Portugal adopts stricter rules for undocumented migrants
As of December 2025, there were 8,730 pending asylum cases in total, reflecting a considerable backlog, which appears to be growing: a year earlier, there were only 4,510 pending cases.
At the same time, asylum status was only granted in seven cases in 2024, compared to 288 instances in 2025.
Across the EU+ countries, the number of asylum applications fell to a total of 800,000 in 2025, down from over a million the previous year, which the EUAA has attributed to various factors, including favorable political developments in key countries of origin, such as Syria.
This marks the second consecutive year of declining asylum applications being measured in Europe.
Read Also
Irregular crossings into EU down 60 percent in January, says Frontex
Leave a Reply