Although in a pandemic year, which limited travel, over 2 thousand children from Albania applied for asylum in one of the countries of the European Union and Switzerland.

The data were published by the European Statistics Office, in the latest report on asylum applications from children, from Albania accounted for 12 percent of the total from European countries.

In first place is Turkey with 24 percent and Russia with 23 percent.

Both of these countries have a much higher population than our country, making Albania a record for child asylum applications in relation to the population.

In fourth place is Moldova with 10 percent, followed by Serbia with 8 percent.

France, the most favorite for Albanian children

According to Eurostat, there were a total of 2,125 applications from Albanian children in EU countries and Switzerland in 2020, of which almost 83 percent were under 14 years old.

Compared to the previous year applications have dropped about three times due to pandemic restrictions.

The main destination of children’s applications is France, which is known as a country with more social practices.

In 2020, it accounted for 44 per cent of total applications, followed by Germany with 22.6 per cent, Greece with 11.3 per cent, Belgium with 6.8 per cent, Italy with 5.8 per cent and Sweden with 3.7 per cent.

In 2019, about 10 per cent of applications from children were made in the UK, but in 2020, Eurostat did not report data for the country that has already left the EU.

Albanian child asylum applications in 2020 accounted for 34.3 percent of the total.

Applications in total

According to Eurostat, in 2020, around 129.6 thousand children applied for the first time for asylum in the EU, which corresponds to 31 percent of the total number of first-time asylum applications registered in the EU. Among those children, 10 percent were unaccompanied minors corresponding to 3 percent of the total number of first-time asylum seekers.

Across EU member states, the proportion of children in the total number of asylum seekers for the first time changed in 2020 from 54% in Germany to 6% in Slovakia, while the proportion of unaccompanied minors in the number of The total number of asylum seekers for the first time was highest in Bulgaria at 23 per cent and lowest in Spain at 0.1 per cent. In the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Hungary no applications were registered from unaccompanied minors not registered in 2020.

Regarding the country of citizenship of minor asylum seekers for the first time in 2020 more than half or 52 percent of children had a citizenship of an Asian country, 22 percent African, 13 percent from America and 9 percent hundred had a European citizenship from a non-EU country. Syria, with 25 percent of the total number of children seeking asylum for the first time, was the leading citizenship of minor asylum seekers for the first time in 2020.

The share of unaccompanied minors in the number of children seeking asylum for the first time from the continent was 15 percent for Asia and 11 percent for Africa, while this share was equal to 2 percent for Europe and 1 percent for America. . In 2020, the main country of citizenship of asylum seekers considered unaccompanied minors was Afghanistan with 41 percent of the total EU of all applicants considered unaccompanied minors. / Monitor /