Romania granted asylum for almost 2,000 in 2013, most of them from Syria

Romania granted asylum for 1,840 people last year, which is 1.35 percent of the 135,725 people who sought refuge in the European Union (EU), according to official data released by the EU statistics institute Eurostat. Of the 1,840 people, almost 1,600 came from Syria, where the three-year ongoing civil war between president Bashar al-Assad’s forces and his opponents determined many human rights violations. A total of almost 36,000 Syrians got asylum in the EU last year. Romania also received smaller groups from Iraq and from the occupied Palestinian territories. Of the 1,840 people, 770 got refugee status and 1,065 received subsidiary protection, which means they do not qualify to get refugee status, but that they would be in danger if they were to return to their countries of origin. “In the member states, the highest rates of recognition for first instance decisions were recorded in Bulgaria (87 percent), Malta (84 percent) and Romania (64 percent),” according to Eurostat. editor@romania-insider.com (photo source: UN)