Libyans account for majority of asylum seekers in Malta

The largest number of people granted protection status when applying for asylum in Malta in 2016 were Libyans, figures from the EU's statistics agency Eurostat revealed on Wednesday.

Eurostat data indicates that this is in contrast to the vast majority of EU member states where Syrians were granted protection status when applying for asylum.

In 2016, Malta accepted asylum applications from 1,255 people in 2016, of which 545 were Libyan nationals, making up 43 percent.

Syrians comprised 29 percent with 360 accepted applications, and Eritrean made up 8 percent with 105 accepted applications.

From the total number of successful asylum applicants, Malta granted 190 refugee status and 1010 subsidiary protection. A further 55 were accepted due to humanitarian reasons.

Across the EU Syrians, with 57 percent of the total number of persons granted protection status in the EU member states remained the largest group of beneficiaries of protection status in 2016.

More than 70 percent of Syrians granted protection status in the EU was recorded in Germany. Endit