New figures for July

Asylum applications decline – hardly any illegal migration

53 percent of applicants are under the age of 18.

(Bild: APA/HELMUT FOHRINGER)

The decline in asylum numbers continued in July. The 1766 applications were the lowest monthly figure in 2024, but the figures are still high compared to recent history.

This brings the total number of applications this year to 15,245. This is significantly fewer than in the two previous years (minus 47% compared to 2023), but the figures are already higher than in 2018, 2019 and 2020 as a whole.

Meanwhile, the figures for basic care have fallen significantly. While almost 79,000 people were cared for in this area at the beginning of the year, there are now around 7,000 fewer. As many as 52% of those receiving basic care are displaced persons from Ukraine.

Half of applications for minors
The asylum figures for the first seven months show that family reunification dominated applications, especially at the beginning of the year. In terms of age groups, minors are the largest group and 53 percent of applicants are under 18. The number of female asylum seekers is also unusually high at 45 percent.

In contrast, illegal migration to Austria is declining sharply, which can be seen above all in the number of apprehensions in Burgenland. This year, 757 people were apprehended by mid-August. In 2022, over 33,000 people were apprehended in Burgenland during this period, compared to almost 16,000 in the previous year.

The majority come from Syria
As far as the countries of origin are concerned, the July statistics do not reveal much new information either. 50 percent of applications came from Syrians. Over the first seven months, as many as 61 percent of applications were submitted by citizens of this country. The second largest group are Afghans.