A total of 2,482 applications for international protection were received by the International Protection Agency during 2020, a decrease of 39.3 per cent over the preceding year, the National Statistics Office said yesterday.

During 2020, 29 boat landings (including persons air lifted at sea) were recorded in Malta, with 2,281 persons being brought to Maltese shores, a decrease of 33.0 per cent when compared to 2019.

The majority of persons brought to shore (84.8 per cent) were citizens of African countries while the remaining 15.2 per cent were citizens of Asian countries. January was the month with the highest recorded number of persons on board with a total of 553 individuals, followed by arrivals in February and June, with 436 and 426 individuals, respectively.

A total of 2,482 applications were lodged with the International Protection Agency (IPA) during 2020 – a decrease of 39.3 per cent over the previous year. When analysing asylum applications per million resident population across the member states within the European Union (EU), Malta ranked second after Cyprus.

Most of the applicants were citizens of African countries (77.8 per cent) with the largest proportion of the total applicants being Sudanese citizens (18.1 per cent).

This was followed by relatively similar proportions for Bangladeshi, Eritrean and Nigerian citizens, at 10.6 per cent, 9.1 per cent and 8.9 per cent, respectively. A large proportion of the applicants (74.3 per cent) were males aged between 18 and 34. During 2020, the IPA processed a total of 873 applications; 30.7 per cent were granted a positive decision at first instance, while the remaining applications were rejected (69.3 per cent).

When compared to the other EU member states, this ranks Malta fifteenth with respect to the share of positive first decisions on applications in 2020. Ireland had the highest share of positive first decisions at 74.1 per cent with Czechia having the lowest share of positive decisions at 10.9 per cent. Of all the applicants granted a form of protection status at first instance during 2020, 56.0 per cent were of Syrian citizenship followed by 27.2 per cent who were of Libyan citizenship.

A total of 728 appeals on first instance decisions were filed with the International Protection Appeals Tribunal in 2020, a slight decrease of 8.3 per cent from the previous year. During 2020, the International Protection Appeals Tribunal processed 565 appeals, of which only 1.6 per cent resulted in a positive decision with the rest being rejected.

In 2020, Malta had the fifth lowest share of positive final instance decisions on appeals amongst the 27 EU member states. At the end of 2020, there were 5,138 pending decisions on applications for asylum, an increase of 20.6 per cent from the previous year. Of the total pending decisions, 4,321 were pending a first decision from the IPA and 817 were pending the final decision from appeals filed with the International Protection Appeals Tribunal.

Of the individuals awaiting a decision 22.7 per cent were Sudanese citizens. An increase of 23.3 per cent was registered in the resident population of open centres and other institutional households when compared to the preceding year, with the majority of the persons residing in Ħal Far (81.6 per cent). A further 254 persons (12.7 per cent) were residing in other institutional households, excluding open centres.

The majority of the residents were males at 83.7 per cent while 31.2 per cent and 13.7 per cent were Sudanese and Eritrean, respectively. During the year under review, 273 persons were relocated from Malta to another EU+ country, a decrease of 55.9 per cent when compared to the previous year. A further 7 persons benefitted from assisted voluntary return programmes and were returned to their country of origin. The majority of relocations were split between Germany and France, with these countries hosting 45.8 per cent and 38.8 per cent of persons relocated, respectively.