Statistics on asylum matters have become a central part of political debate in Europe in recent years. In particular, statistics on protection rates or recognition rates, the percentage of people who are recognised or declared to be entitled to international protection, are often used in arguments about reasons for migration and appropriate policy responses. A common argument is to present protection rates as “low” or to argue that a majority of those arriving in Europe are not entitled to protection, and that therefore policy responses should focus on repatriation and prevention of arrivals. ECRE has analysed the collection and use of asylum statistics and has also contributed the gathering and dissemination of asylum statistics through its Asylum Information Database (AIDA).

ECRE sounds a note of caution on common presentation of statistics: read Asylum statistics in Europe: Factsheet