Asylum applications decreased by one fifth in 2025 compared to 2024, according to the EU Asylum Agency’s Latest Asylum Trends 2025. Applications in 2025 were concentrated among a limited number of nationalities. The five largest groups were citizens of Afghanistan (14% of all applications), Venezuela (11%), Syria (5%), Bangladesh (4%) and Türkiye (4%). Together these accounted for approximately 39% of all applications lodged in the EU, Norway and Switzerland. Reasons for this decreasing trend are diverse, with some of the key drivers being described by the same EUAA report. However, this does not mean that protection needs are decreasing, with a rising trend of almost 30,5 million refugees worldwide in 2025, according to UNHCR.

Applications of Syrian nationals decreased the most, following the regime change in Syria. At the same time, after the landmark ruling of the CJEU in Joined Cases C-608/22 and C-609/22 of 4 October 2024, repeated applications by Afghan women rose despite no corresponding increase in arrivals at the external borders. The Court ruled that Afghan women face a general risk of persecution and can be recognised as refugees solely on the basis of their gender and nationality without requiring further individualised circumstances. According to the same EUAA report, Germany reported a sharp rise in Afghan women’s asylum claims in mid-2025, noting that nearly half were repeated applications. According to a reply to a parliamentary request, the German government revoked resettlement pledges for Afghans in Pakistan.

At the same time, Eurostat data show that pending asylum applications  have reached near-record levels, with over 1,2 million persons subject of pending asylum applications by November 2025, especially in France, Germany, Italy and Spain.

Member States are making efforts to implement the Pact on Migration and Asylum, which will fully apply as of mid-2026. The Pact consists of ten legislative acts aimed at creating a more integrated, efficient and balanced EU migration and asylum system. Two key regulations—the Asylum and Migration Management Regulation (AMMR) and the Asylum Procedures Regulation—required Member States to adopt National Implementation Plans by December 2024, linked to the Commission’s Common Implementation Plan. National Implementation Plans set out concrete actions, timelines and costs to ensure effective use of the transition period and to adapt national legal, administrative and operational frameworks. In addition, the AMMR requires Member States to adopt national strategies intended to provide a coherent, strategic framework to ensure sufficient capacity for asylum and migration management. They should include measures to prevent and respond to migratory pressure, explain how common principles are applied at national level, and show how findings from EU‑level monitoring and evaluations—by the EUAA, Frontex, and under the Screening and Schengen Regulations—are considered. An EUAA situational update of March 2026 contains the links to those national plans which are publicly available.

The AMMR further envisages a five-year asylum and migration management strategy, for the first time published on 29 January 2026 and an annual asylum and migration report, published on 11 November 2025, with FRA input.

Member States bordering Belarus and Russia adopted measures in response to the instrumentalisation of migrants by third countries. Estonia repeatedly closed some of its border crossings to Russia, most recently the Luhamaa and Koidula road border crossings at night, as of 24 February 2026 for three months, according to a government press release. The situation at the Finnish – Russian border remains calm after the Finnish government has repeatedly closed all border crossing points since 15 December 2023 – with the latest decision until further notice. In early July, Finland extended the validity of its Border Security Act, which enables the Finnish Government to limit the submission of applications for international protection, until the end of 2026. To FRA’s knowledge, these laws did not lead to summary returns. For example, four men who crossed into Finland in February 2026, and who were suspected of serious crimes, were channelled into criminal procedures, according to Finnish media.

Legislation in Latvia, Lithuania and Poland maintained or extended restrictions to access to asylum at their borders with Belarus. These measures left people stranded in border forests without shelter or access to humanitarian assistance, as described in section 2. In February 2026, these three countries issued a declaration on strengthened cooperation on security of external borders, citing hybrid threats.

In a 2025 position paper, FRA stresses that measures to counter the instrumentalisation of migrants falling within the scope of EU law must remain fully compliant with EU law and uphold the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Charter. FRA noted that some of the actions taken to counter instrumentalisation – particularly those targeting migrants and refugees – may have long-lasting consequences for the protection of fundamental rights at the EU’s external borders and may ultimately undermine the nature of asylum as a fundamental right.

National court decisions have increasingly scrutinised state practices at the external borders, particularly concerning summary expulsions and access to asylum procedures. On 30 December 2025, the Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania ruled that summary expulsions at the Belarus border are unlawful and that denying access to asylum violates international and EU law. In November 2025, the Association for Legal Intervention reported the first Polish court ruling awarding compensation for unlawful detention and summary return of two Afghan nationals detained in August 2021 without access to legal assistance or interpretation.

Legal barriers to accessing asylum persist in ‘embassy procedure’, which requires people to first file a “statement of intent” at Hungarian embassies in Belgrade or Kyiv before they can obtain a single‑entry permit to apply for asylum in Hungary, rendering access to asylum almost impossible. According to the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, between June 2020 and June 2025, only 16 individuals were authorised to enter Hungary to lodge an asylum application via the embassy asylum procedure. In December 2025, Hungary announced in the media to contest the enforcement of CJEU 2024 ruling (C-123/22) which imposed financial penalties for Hungary’s continued infringement of EU law.

In July 2025, Greece adopted a three month suspension of asylum applications for sea arrivals from North Africa to Crete (July–October 2025). The ECtHR issued interim measures to prevent removals under this policy. Persistent operational obstacles also continued to hinder access to asylum procedures, including shortages of interpreters, as highlighted in the Aegean NGO Network’s Monitoring Report on the Closed Controlled Facilities of March 2026. The report also illustrates the increasingly constrained operating space for NGOs supporting asylum seekers, such as reduced physical access to facilities, legal and administrative barriers to operation, constraints on independent monitoring, and a hostile or deterrent environment.

According to the European Annual Asylum and Migration Report 2025, only about 12,000 people arrived in the EU through resettlement and humanitarian admission pathways in 2024–2025. Numbers of admitted refugees decreased in most Member States compared with previous years — illustrating a marked decline in resettlement activities.

Some EU Member States have reinstated controls at internal Schengen borders, turning back asylum applicants without applying Dublin Regulation procedures.

 In May 2025, Germany expanded border controls and authorised immediate rejections at land borders, without assessing asylum claims, citing Article 72 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU). Although in June 2025 a court in Berlin ruled the practice unlawful, authorities continued it. Border controls remained in place across all German land borders in March 2026. In response, Poland also reintroduced controls on its borders with Germany and Lithuania in mid‑2025. According to the media quoting the Lithuanian State Border Guard Service, in July 2025, Lithuanian authorities detain migrants entering from Latvia and attempting to reach Poland.