Italy: Over 77,000 asylum claims lodged in 2022

Rome: Last year, more than 77,000 asylum applications were submitted in Italy, far fewer than in Germany, France and Spain.

“The year 2022 was particularly complex for asylum requests in Italy and in Europe,” says the Italian Refugee Council’s (CIR) annual report, released earlier this week. The conflict in Ukraine forced some eight million refugees to flee, with 173,589 of them seeking shelter in Italy, according to Interior Ministry data to 31 December, 2022.

“This scenario has required our constant commitment and saw us at the center of a number of actions to protect and integrate [the refugees],” continues the report, published on February 21.

In 2022, there were 77,195 international protection requests lodged in Italy. The numbers were much higher in Germany (217,735), France (137,505) and Spain (116,140).

This means that in Italy, the total number of asylum requests was sightly over one third of those in Germany (35%), only 56% of those lodged in France and 66% of the requests presented in Spain.

In Italy, 52,625 applications were examined: 53% (27,385) of claims were rejected, 12% (6,161) were granted refugee status, 13% (6,770) subsidiary protection and 21% (10,865) special protection.

According to Interior Ministry data, 105,140 migrants arrived in Italy irregularly by boat in 2022. Meanwhile, more than 1,400 were recorded as dead or missing in the Central Mediterranean, IOM figures show.

“These numbers tell a very different story compared to what is generally perceived,” said Roberto Zaccaria, President of CIR.

“In our country there is no unmanageable crisis, the real emergency is the lack of European commitment in terms of rescue missions at sea and in terms of support on how to manage it,” Zaccaria said. “This is truly complex, managing the migration flows that reach our coasts.”