Eurostart, a leading provider of high quality statistics on Europe, has published data of the persons seeking shelter in the EU for Q1 2013, Radio Liberty Armenian service said. Thus, the number of Armenian citizens seeking refuge in Europe fell 12% in Q1 2013 as compared to the same period of 2012 (by some 200 people).
Within the first three months of this year, 1,355 residents of Armenia asked for asylum in Europe. For comparison, 10% more citizens of Georgia (2310 people) applied for refuge in Europe in the period under review.
Data on Azerbaijan are not available in the list of 30 countries wherefrom people most of migrate to the EU countries. Nevertheless, by Eurostat's data, 650 people from Azerbaijan have applied for asylum in Q1 2013 - half as much as from Armenia.
For the last 12 months 5,300 people from Armenia, 11,035 people from Georgia, about 6,300 from Turkey, and around 14,000 people from Iran have sought asylum in Europe.
Nearly 40 percent of the Armenian citizens seeking refuge in Europe are at the age of 18-34, while another 32% are at the age of 35-64. Only 3% of the Armenian citizens appealing for refuge are above 65 and another 25% are minors.
France and Germany are among the most attractive countries for the Armenian citizens. In Q1 2013 48% of the Armenian citizens seeking asylum in Europe left for France. Armenian citizens are the second after the citizens of Congo to receive most rejections from the French authorities. 18% of Armenian citizens have appealed for asylum to the German authorities in the period under review. Then go Belgium (9%), Poland (6%), and Sweden (5%).
Most of the appeals by Armenian citizens were rejected in Europe in Q1 2013: only 125 out of 1500 decisions on the appeals were positive.