The Office for Asylum and Refugees resolves 96,251 international protection cases in 2024, 4.2 per cent more than in 2023

The Office for Asylum and Refugees (OAR), which is part of the Directorate General for International Protection, resolved 96,251 international protection cases in 2024. This is an increase of 4.2 per cent over the previous year and is the highest since the creation of the office in 1992, except for 2020, which marked the peak due to the exceptional pandemic situation.

During 2024, Spain also received 167,366 applications for international protection, according to provisional data at 31 December. This is 2.5 per cent more than in the previous year and the highest number in the history of the OAR. Spain is therefore the second largest recipient of international protection in the European Union, behind only Germany.

By nationality, the country of origin with the most applicants was Venezuela, with 66,134 applications, 39.5 per cent of the total, followed by Colombia (40,140). The two countries account for 63.5 per cent of the files formalised in 2024. They are followed by Mali (10,673), Peru (10,427) and Senegal (7,708). The first five nationalities account for 80.7 per cent of the total number of registered cases.

By place of submission, the Community of Madrid heads the list of autonomous communities with the most applications (47,439), ahead of Andalusia (25,538) and Catalonia (17,488).

Granting international protection

In the past year, 6,355 refugee statuses have been granted. The top five nationalities of those granted status are Nicaraguan, Syrian, Afghan, Colombian and Honduran. Subsidiary protection has also been processed for 11,453 people, 200 per cent more than the number of decisions signed last year, and the highest number of subsidiary protections granted in Spain. Some 33,534 citizens, mostly Venezuelans, have also received residence permits for humanitarian reasons for one year.

According to this data, the rate of recognition of refugee and subsidiary protection status has reached 18.5 per cent, six points higher than in 2023, and the rate of international protection has reached 53.3 per cent.

Processing of statelessness petitions

In 2024, 2,084 applications for stateless status were submitted, 86.4 per cent more than in 2023, consolidating an upwards trend. A total of 911 files have been resolved.

Statelessness is a procedure aimed at identifying among applicants persons who are not considered as nationals by any State, according to its legislation, and who claim to be without nationality, as provided for in the Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, concluded in New York on 28 September 1954.

More than 36,700 temporary protections

In 2024, the Directorate General for International Protection granted temporary protection to 36,734 people (8.3 per cent more than in 2023), which brings the number of citizens displaced by Russia's invasion of Ukraine and who have been granted temporary protection in Spain to more than 231,000.

The Government of Spain launched this emergency procedure in March 2022 and delivered the first concession resolution on the 11th of that month, in compliance with the EU agreement authorising, for the first time, the application of the Temporary Protection Directive.

Non official translation