(Brussels) In 2016, asylum seekers in the EU countries amounted to one million 204 thousand, “slightly less than in 2015, when people seeking for international protection were one million 257 thousand, while in 2014 they had been about one half of that, i.e. 562 thousand”. This has been officially confirmed by Eurostat in the figures posted today about all of the 28 EU member states. Syrians (334 thousand) account for over one third of total asylum seekers, followed by Afghans (183 thousand) and Iraqis (127 thousand). Figures by country show that “six asylum seekers out of 10 (722 thousand people) apply in Germany”, followed a long way down by Italy (121 thousand) and then France, Greece, Austria. In Germany, asylum seekers are 8,700 per one million, while at the opposite end of the spectrum they are just 18 per one million in Slovakia. After Syrians, Afghans and Iraqis, the largest groups of people seeking international protection in the EU are Pakistanis, Nigerians, Iranians, Eritreans, Albanians and Russians.