EU countries registered 650,000 requests for asylum last year, about half the number from 2016, official figures showed Tuesday, as controversial deals with Turkey and Libya curbed migrant flows. Syrians, who are fleeing an eight-year civil war, as well as Iraqis and Afghans, whose countries are also gripped by armed conflict, accounted for most of those numbers, Eurostat said.
"In 2017, 650,000 first time asylum seekers applied for international protection in the member states of the European Union. This was just over half the number recorded in 2016," a statement said. EU states registered 1.2 million first-time asylum applicants in 2016.