www.iepn.org June 2016 On the Move: Opportunities and Challenges of Migration for Europe and Israel Budapest, 16- 17 March 2016 Edited by: Jan Busse, Simon Gatterer, Itamar Gazala, Dr. Rem Korteweg, Dr. Roby Nathanson and Dr. Werner Puschra The annual meeting of the Israeli-European Policy Network(IEPN) in Europe focused on the issue of migration and was held in Budapest. Ever since mid-2015, Europe is facing an unprecedented phenomenon of migration, mainly due to the civil wars in Syria and in Iraq. Eurostat data shows that in 2015 alone, over 1.2 million first time asylum seekers, of which almost 90,000 were unaccompanied minors, applied for international protection in the member states of the EU, more than double that of the previous year. Syrians(362,800 people), Afghans(178,200) and Iraqis(121,500) were the top 3 citizenships of asylum seekers. The highest number of first time applicants was registered in Germany(441,800 people, or 35% of all first time applicants in the EU Member States), followed by Hungary(174,400, or 14%), Sweden(156,100, or 12%), Austria(85,500, or 7%), Italy(83,200, or 7%) and France(70,600, or 6%). Compared with the population of each member state, the highest number of registered first time applicants in 2015 was recorded in Hungary(17,699 first time applicants per million inhabitants), followed by Sweden(16,016), Austria(9,970), Finland(5,876) and Germany(5,441). In 2015, there were on average 2,470 first time asylum applicants per million inhabitants in the EU member states. The member states of the EU granted protection status to 333,350 asylum seekers in 2015, an increase of 72% compared with 2014. The highest number of persons granted protection status was registered in Germany(148,200, or 44%), followed by Sweden (34,500, or 10%), Italy(29,600, or 9%), France (26,000, or 8%), the United Kingdom(17,900, or 5%), Austria(17,800, or 5%) and the Netherlands (17,000, or 5%). Since 2008, a total of nearly 1.1 million asylum seekers have been granted protection status in the EU. The IEPN meeting came as the EU has been struggling to find an answer to the migration crisis. The ongoing migrant crisis began in 2015, when a rising number of migrants made the journey to the EU, traveling across the Mediterranean Sea or through Southeast Europe, to seek asylum, mainly due to the conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2015 more than 3,770 people drowned or went missing while crossing the Mediterranean to Greece or Italy. Survivors often report violence and abuse by people traffickers, who charge thousands of dollars per person for their services. As European countries struggle with the mass movement of people, some have tightened border controls. This has left tens of thousands of migrants stranded in Greece, raising fears of a humanitarian crisis. The EU, with 28 member states, each with their own government, police force and judiciary system, finds it difficult to form a consensus regarding the steps to be taken to deal with the crisis. The location of Budapest was of particular interest. 1 11