Ninety Albanian citizens applied for asylum in the EU during the month of May according to data from the European Asylum Support Office.
In April, 156 applications were made, and in March over 500. Prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, several thousand Albanians were applying for asylum each month. While the majority were refused on the first decision, a notable amount received subsidiary protection and refugee status
Also in May, 34 received subsidiary protection, four received refugee status, and 368 negative decisions were given. In April, 39 received subsidiary protection, 16 received refugee status, and 481 negative decisions were given. In December 2019, over 100 Albanians were granted refugee or subsidiary protection status.
Overall, some 9% of Albanian citizens applying for asylum received protection status.
The data found that despite the gradual easing of restrictions across the EU, asylum figures have still not fully resumed. In May there were a total of 10,190 asylum applications in the EU, down 83% from February.
Fewer applications were made by Albanians, due to lockdown measures and the closure of borders.
They also found that 4% of all applications came from unaccompanied minors.
At the end of March, 940,960 cases were pending at all instances, reduced to 462,829 at the end of May.
