Up to 63,300 asylym seekers in the European Union member states in 2016 were unaccpomanied minors, Eurostat, the EU’s statistical office, reported on Thursday.
The number, however, is down by about a third compared with 2015 with almost 95,500 minors registered for asylum in the EU. In 2016, a substantial minority of minor applicants were males (89%) and over two-thirds were aged 16 to 17 (68%) or about 43,300), while those aged 14 to 15 accounted for 21 % (around 13,500 persons) and those aged less than 14 for 10% (almost 6,300 persons). More than a third (38%) of minor asylum applicants in the EU in 2016 were Afghans and about a fifth (19%) Syrians.
SOURCE: Kuna
