In the first half of the year, citizens from Albania and Kosovo lead in relation to other countries from the Balkan region in terms of the number of requests for asylum to the European Union.

The latest report of the European Asylum Agency (EUAA) states that from January to June, 3.778 Albanian citizens applied for asylum in EU member states.

- The largest number of requests for asylum of citizens from Albania are registered in Italy, Greece and France. Even the number of requests for asylum from citizens of Kosovo in an EU country, 3.375 requests were submitted in the first half of the year.

According to the EUAA report, citizens of North Macedonia submitted 1.872 requests for asylum, Serbia 1.660, Bosnia and Herzegovina 750 and Montenegro 182 requests.

- According to the data published earlier by the European Asylum Agency, about 2.700 requests of citizens from Albania collected during the past year are waiting to be examined, while the rate of recognition of asylum is very low for Albanian citizens, not exceeding three percent of the total number of requests filed in EU countries.

Meanwhile, according to a newly published report by the European Statistics Agency (Eurostat), citizens from Albania also received the highest number of residence permits in EU countries during 2023 from the Balkan region.

According to Eurostat, 74.938 citizens from Albania received a residence permit in an EU country for the first time in 2023, of which about 41.760 received permits for family reasons, 13.144 for other unspecified reasons, and 2.450 for education.