Italy was second-top in the
European Union for the number of first-time asylum applicants
registered in 2017 behind Germany, Eurostat said on Tuesday.
Italy had 126,550 requests last year, 19.5% of the total.
That was a rise of 4% on the 121,185 registered in 2016.
Last year the top country of origin of asylum seekers in
Italy was Nigeria with 24,950 applications.
With 198,300 first-time applicants in 2017, Germany accounted
for 31% of the total in 2017, although the figure was down by
73% on the previous year.
Last year 650,000 first-time asylum seekers applied for
international protection in the EU, down on 46% on the 1.2065
million of 2016.
In the table for last year, Italy was followed by France
(91,100 applications), Greece (57,000), the United Kingdom
(33,300) and Spain (30,400).
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