Statistics
Overview of statistical practice
Since February 2020, the authorities have suspended the publication of statistical information by the Asylum Service, previously made available on a monthly
basis. Limited information on the asylum procedure is made available in the form of monthly reports by the Ministry of Migration and Asylum. Moreover, there
are substantial disparities between figures presented by the Ministry of Migration and Asylum monthly reports and Eurostat, pointing for example to respective
first instance recognition rates of 44% and 69% for the first half of 2020. 1 At the same time, transparency and publication obligations imposed by Greek law
on administrative bodies such as the Appeals Authority remain ‘dead letter’ to date. The Appeals Authority has never published quarterly activity reports
pursuant to Article 4(3) L 4375/2016, in which it should include statistics on appeals lodged, the percentage of cases processed in written and oral procedures,
processing times of appeals, recognition rates, applications for annulment lodged against Appeals Committee decisions, applications for legal aid and
beneficiaries of legal aid.2
Applications and granting of protection status at first instance in 2020:
Applicants in
2020
Total
40,559
Pending
applications at
the end of 2020
57,3474
Refugee
status
26,371
Subsidiary Rejection (on
protection
the merits)
7,954
22,821
Total number of
1st instance Refugee rate Subs. Prot. rate Rejection rate
decisions/acts3
81,052
33%
10%
28%
Breakdown by countries of origin of the total numbers:
Afghanistan
Syria
Pakistan
DR Congo
11,514
7,768
4,146
1,929
19,327
5,563
4,711
3,546
4,606
13,478
99
562
6,164
2
9
77
5,494
1,232
4,061
1,413
2,330
3,716
917
113
28.3%
91.6%
2.4%
27.4%
37.9%
0.01%
0.2%
3.8%
33.8%
8.4%
97.4%
68.9%
Source: Ministry of Migration and Asylum, Yearly Report 2020, published in January 2021, available at: https://bit.ly/3uBkAJC and Information provided by the Asylum Service,
31 March 2021
1
2
3
4
RSA, ‘Majority of asylum seekers in need of international protection, according to Eurostat first instance asylum statistics’, 3 September 2020, available at:
https://bit.ly/391WC2L.
RSA, ‘Asylum statistics for 2020 should be published and unpacked’, 15 July 2020, available at: https://bit.ly/3fgR7yn.
It concerns: refugee status recognition, subsidiary protection, rejection on the merits, inadmissibility decisions, act of discontinuation, filing of a case without further
action,
Information provided by the Asylum Service, 31 March 2021. However, according to the official statistics of the Asylum Service the pending applications at the end of
2020 were 76,335; see Ministry of Migration and Asylum, Yearly Report 2020, published in January 2021, available at: https://bit.ly/3uBkAJC