According to a report from Eurostat on those who were granted protected status under EU asylum law in 2016, only 3.17%, or 1,375 of 43,000 Albanian asylum requests were granted.
The country with the largest amount of Albanian asylum applications was Germany, with 32,100 requests. Only 170 (0.52%) were granted. France comes second with 5,330 requests and 750 (14.07%) grants. The third country in terms of number of applications was the UK, with 1,090 requests in 2016.
As Albania is considered a safe country of origin, Albanian asylum applications are hardly ever considered. Another reason for the low acceptance rate are the recently implemented anti-immigration policies in several EU countries, in response to terrorist attacks.
Kosovo citizens have a slightly better chance of receiving asylum, 4.9%, while for Serbs it is 1.7% and Macedonians 0.6%.
According to the report, the largest group of recognized asylum seekers in the EU are the Syrians (405,600), followed by Iraqis (65,800), and Afghanis (61,800). Most of them received asylum in Germany.
