Asylum and Refugee Office doubles the number of resolutions on international protection in 2020 on the figure for 2019

This figure is a new record and confirms the trend recorded over the last two years; in 2018, 12,889 applications were resolved.

In terms of the applications registered, a total of 88,762 applications for international protection were registered in Spain to 31 December, with provisional data - a procedure that can be initiated regardless of the time of arrival in the country - compared with 118,446 applications recorded in 2019.

This is thus the first time since 2011 that more case files have been resolved than the number registered, which has led to a change in trend that is leading to a reduction in the backlog of pending applications.

By nationality, the main countries of origin of applicants for international protection in 2020 were, in order: Venezuela, Colombia, Honduras, Peru and Nicaragua. As regards the place of presentation, the Region of Madrid tops the list, with 33,871 applications, followed by Catalonia (9,614) and the Region of Valencia (9,060).

Status of Stateless Persons

In 2020, the figures of resolutions of applications for the status of stateless persons were also noteworthy. The procedure to acknowledge the status of stateless persons is designed to identify those people from among the total applicants that are not considered nationals by any State, pursuant to their legislation, and declare that they lack a nationality, according to the provisions of the Convention on the Status of Stateless Persons, signed in New York on 28 September 1954.

This year, the Asylum and Refugee Office resolved, with data from 30 November, a total of 3,154 of these applications - a new record for this procedure. In 2019, 1,993 case files for the status of stateless persons were resolved.

As regards the number of applications, in this case with provisional data from 31 December, 825 applications were made in 2020, compared with 1,691 in 2019.

Thanks to this drive, the OAR has managed to reduce the backlog of applications for the status of stateless persons to a large extent. The number of pending applications went from 4,375 case files in 2018 and 4,100 in 2019, to now stand at 1,379 applications pending resolution.

Enhanced measures

These figures on the number of resolutions have been possible thanks to the measures introduced by the Ministry of Home Affairs to improve the functioning of the OAR and to the efforts made by those in charge of the office and its staff.

In July 2018, the government approved an extraordinary public employment offer of 231 job positions to strengthen the OAR, thus multiplying the workforce by five, from 60 job positions to a total of 291 public servants that will make up the workforce when the process is completed next year.

While the process is being completed, the office has been strengthened on an interim basis with 192 public servants. In addition, a new IT application is being developed, scheduled to be operational in March 2021, to replace the previous system, introduced back in 1996.

Better quality procedures have also been introduced, and the visibility and transparency of the statistical data of the Asylum and Refugee Office have been enhanced.

Non official translation