Author
Overview of statistical practice
Regular statistics are not published by the authorities. According to IPA, a total of 951 decisions were taken in 2023, of which 70 relate to applications dismissed as inadmissible*.
Applications and granting of protection status at first instance: 2023
| Applicants in year | Pending at
end of year |
Total decisions in year | Total in merit decisions | Total inadmissible | In merit rejection | Refugee status | Subsidiary protection | Temporary Humanitarian Protection (THP)[1] | ||
| Total | 600[2] | 833 | 951 | 881 | 70 | 616 | 18 | 241 | 6 | |
| Breakdown by countries of origin of the total numbers | ||||||||||
| Syria | 119 | 201 | 201 | 188 | 13 | 18 | 8 | 161 | 1 | |
| Bangladesh | 116 | N/A | 109 | 109 | 0 | 108 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| Sudan | 75 | 103 | 58 | 57 | 1 | 55 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| Libya | 33 | 50 | 77 | 77 | 0 | 76 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| Ukraine | 30 | 89 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Guinea | 27 | 37 | 22 | 22 | 0 | 22 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Colombia | 26 | 26 | 22 | 22 | 0 | 22 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Pakistan | 17 | 25 | 16 | 16 | 0 | 14 | 2 | 0 | 0 | |
| Somalia | 15 | 60 | 85 | 81 | 4 | 52 | 1 | 28 | 0 | |
| Nigeria | 13 | 26 | 37 | 37 | 0 | 36 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
Source: International Protection Agency.
* Statistics on decisions cover the decisions taken throughout the year, regardless of whether they concern applications lodged that year or in previous years.
Applications and granting of protection status at first instance: rates for year 2023.
According to IPA, a total of 951 decisions were taken in 2023, of which 70 relate to applications dismissed as inadmissible. The rates in the table below were calculated on a total of 881.
| Overall protection rate | Refugee rate | Subsidiary
protection rate |
Temporary Humanitarian
protection rate |
Overall rejection rate | |
| Total | 29.4% | 2% | 27.4% | 0.1% | 69.9% |
| Syria | 84.6% | 4% | 80.1% | 0.5% | 9% |
| Bangladesh | 0.9% | 0.9% | 0% | 0% | 99.1% |
| Sudan | 3.4% | 1.7% | 0% | 1.7% | 94.8% |
| Libya | 1.3% | 0% | 0% | 1.3% | 98.7% |
| Ukraine[3] | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Guinea | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 100% |
| Colombia | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 100% |
| Pakistan | 12.5% | 12.5% | 0% | 0% | 87.5% |
| Somalia | 34.1% | 1.2% | 32.9% | 0% | 61.2% |
| Nigeria | 2.7% | 0% | 0% | 2.7% | 97.3% |
Source of the percentages: Based on calculations of the figures shared by the International Protection Agency. Protection and rejection rates per country of origin are calculated on the basis of total decisions taken on applications from those countries.
Gender/age breakdown of the total number of applicants: 2023[4]
| Adults | Children | ||
| Accompanied | Unaccompanied | ||
| Number | 515 | 39 | 13 (11 males, 2 females) |
| Percentage | 90.8% | 6.9% | 2.3% |
| Men | Women | |
| Number | 459 | 108 |
| Percentage | 81% | 19% |
Source: International Protection Agency.
First instance and appeal decision rates: 2023
| First instance | Appeal[5] | |||
| Number | Percentage | Number | Percentage | |
| Total number of decisions[6] | 951 | 100% | 563 | 100% |
| Positive decisions | 265 | 27.9% | 17 | 3% |
|
18 | 1.9% | 4 | 0.7% |
|
241 | 25.3% | 5 | 0.9% |
|
6 | 0.6% | 0 | 0% |
|
/ | / | 8 | 1.4% |
| Negative decisions | 686 | 72.1% | 546 | 97% |
Source: International Protection Agency, International Protection Appeals Tribunal.
All types of application breakdown by country of Origin: 2023[8]
| Country of Origin | Count of all types of applications |
| Afghanistan | 1 |
| Algeria | 2 |
| Argentina | 1 |
| Bangladesh | 116 |
| Bosnia And Herzegovina | 1 |
| Brazil | 1 |
| Burkina Faso | 1 |
| Cameroon | 7 |
| Chad | 1 |
| China, including Hong Kong | 1 |
| Colombia | 26 |
| Congo | 1 |
| Ivory Coast | 4 |
| Egypt | 11 |
| Eritrea | 12 |
| Ethiopia | 2 |
| Gambia | 4 |
| Georgia | 7 |
| Ghana | 8 |
| Guinea | 27 |
| India | 3 |
| Indonesia | 1 |
| Iran | 3 |
| Iraq | 2 |
| Kenya | 1 |
| Lebanon | 1 |
| Libya | 33 |
| Mali | 1 |
| Morocco | 2 |
| Myanmar/Burma | 1 |
| Nepal | 4 |
| Nigeria | 13 |
| Pakistan | 17 |
| Palestine | 5 |
| Peru | 4 |
| Philippines | 1 |
| Russia | 10 |
| Senegal | 3 |
| Serbia | 1 |
| Sierra Leone | 2 |
| Somalia | 15 |
| South Sudan | 1 |
| Stateless | 1 |
| Sudan | 75 |
| Syria | 118 |
| Togo | 5 |
| Tunisia | 1 |
| Turkey | 3 |
| Ukraine | 30 |
| Venezuela | 7 |
| Zimbabwe | 1 |
| Grand Total | 599 |
[1] This is explained in more detail below at footnote 31.
[2] This figure includes first and subsequent applications as well as applications defined by IPA as ‘new’. Such applications are “those instances where a previous application was discontinued as explicitly or implicitly withdrawn and the person concerned subsequently requests the application to be re-opened but the legal time limit for re-opening has lapsed.”
[3] In 2023 no decisions were taken by IPA on international protection applications from Ukrainian nationals.
[4] Gender/age breakdown of the 33 ‘new’ applications is not available. These tables are therefore based on the total number of first and subsequent applications, for a total of 567 applications.
[5] The IPAT also determines Dublin appeals, so the total number of decisions includes decisions on such appeals. The decisions upholding Dublin appeals are included under Other, below, whilst the negative decisions are included as such. Although the IPAT confirmed that in took 595 decisions, the 32 indicated as ‘explicitly withdrawn’ are not included in the total number.
[6] For this table, the total number of decisions includes decisions of inadmissibility, therefore presenting numbers and percentages different to those in previous tables
[7] In relation to the IPAT, this number refers to positive decisions in Dublin appeals (2) and applications returned to IPA (6).
[8] Information provided by International Protection Agency on 3 April 2024