Spain counted a total of 163,220 asylum seekers in 2023, a record number that exceeds that registered in 2022 by 37%. Catalonia is the third autonomous community with the most people who have requested international protection, 14,775, after Madrid (52,684 ) and Andalusia (25,948), as indicated in the report More than figures from the Spanish Commission for Refugee Assistance (CEAR).
Venezuela is the country with the most requests, 60,534, while Colombia and Peru follow with 53,564 and 14,308. “Honduras, Cuba, Morocco, Nicaragua, Senegal, Russia and El Salvador complete the list of the top ten nationalities, confirming for another year that the majority arrive through the air border,” indicates CEAR. During 2023, 88,042 resolutions were issued, of which around 47% were favorable for humanitarian reasons, the majority to people arriving from Venezuela; 12% were granted refugee status or subsidiary protection compared to 16.5% in 2022. 40% were unfavorable.
CEAR highlights that the applications made by Russians almost tripled “due to forced recruitment and the deteriorating situation of human rights, especially for LGTBIQ people.” The nationalities with the highest rates of asylum recognition are those of Ukraine, Mali, Burkina Faso, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Afghanistan, Palestine, Russia and Yemen, in addition to those granted to Venezuelans for humanitarian reasons.
