Over 26,000 Turkish citizens said to apply for asylum in Europe in last six months

Turkish citizens ranked fifth in applications for asylum to European Union countries, after Syrians, Afghans, Venezuelans, and Columbians. More than 26,000 Turks have applied for asylum to the EU in the January-June 2023 period, an EU official told ANKA News Agency.

Wednesday June 21 2023 12:47 pm

Duvar English

More than 26,000 Turkish citizens have applied for asylum in Europe since the beginning of 2013, an EU official told ANKA News Agency.

In terms of the number of asylum applications in the EU, Turkey came fifth in the world, after Syria, Afghanistan, Venezuela and Colombia.

The figure came as discussions continue with regards to the difficulty Turks are facing to obtain a Schengen visa. In 2022, Schengen countries received more than 7.5 million applications from all over the world for short-term visa, according to the EU official. Of these applications, 778,409 came from Turkey. In 2021, only 271,997 Turks had applied for short-term Schengen visa.

Data by Schengen Visa Statistics show that Turkey has now overcome Russia as the country where the highest number of applications for Schengen visas are filed, with the latter being listed in the second position for the first time ever. India follows Russia at the third place in the list.

The Schengen visa rejection rate is 17.9 percent on average in the world, whereas this figure is 15.37 percent for applications coming from Turkey, according to the official.

The visa-receiving process is said to last long since “the applications tripled only in one year and due to erroneous and similar reasons.”