Spain grants asylum to only 1 in 9 applicants as EU asylum requests fall

Spain was the third EU country receiving the most asylum applications in 2025, with 144,396 requests, but granted protection to just 11% – roughly one out of every nine claimants. The CEAR report attributes the 13.7% drop in applications to stricter border controls and a new immigration regulation that excludes waiting time from residency calculations. The report also notes a surge in case closures, with 16,991 requests archived – a 179.8% increase year‑on‑year – and a 46% decline in irregular arrivals, especially to the Canary Islands.

Eurostat data for March 2026 show EU first‑time asylum requests falling 19% to 47,100 compared with the previous year, while second‑instance applications rose 28%. Italy led in new applications with 10,900 cases, followed closely by Spain (10,840), France (8,895) and Germany (6,980). Overall, 84,924 asylum requests were approved in the first quarter, representing a 41% acceptance rate, up 28% from the same period in 2025.