Just over 7,000 people applied for asylum in the Netherlands in April, May and June. That is more than twice as much as in the same months last year, reports the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS).
The government received 7050 first asylum applications in the second quarter of this year. For those three months, that’s the highest number since 2014.
In the second quarter of 2021, 3340 people had applied for asylum in the Netherlands. At the time, the influx was low due to measures against the corona virus, Statistics Netherlands explains. The year before, just after the start of the corona crisis, there were even fewer applications. In April, May and June 2020, 260 people applied for asylum. But also in the second quarter of 2019, before the corona outbreak, there were fewer applications than now, namely 5190.
Syrians have been the largest group of asylum seekers for years. In April, May and June, 2260 people from that country applied for asylum in the Netherlands for the first time. In the same months last year, about a thousand Syrians applied for asylum.
After the Syrians, the Turks follow. The Netherlands received 695 asylum applications from people from that country. This is followed by Afghans (630) and Somalis (300).
In the second quarter, 170 people from Russia applied for asylum. That’s the highest number in CBS data, going back to 2013. It’s almost the same as in all of 2021, when 205 Russians applied for asylum here.
People who have received a residence permit in the Netherlands may also bring their family members over to be reunited. These people are called relatives. In the second quarter, 3140 people came to the Netherlands in this way. More than 2000 of them came from Syria. That is 21 percent more than in the same months last year. Then Turkey, Eritrea and Yemen follow.