The European Commission published the sixth report within the framework of the visa suspension mechanism, which reads that in 2022, asylum requests in EU member states increased by 81% compared to the previous year.
In particular, according to the report of the European Commission, in 2021, 14,635 and in 2022, 26,450 citizens of Georgia applied for asylum to the member states of the European Union. The authors of the report claim that in 2022, 7% of these applications were granted, while this figure was 5% in 2021.
Of citizens of Georgia who are in EU countries illegally, they report there were 21,910 in 2022, 87% more than the previous year’s data (11,695). The document also mentions that in 2022, 3,970 Georgian citizens were refused entry to the territory of the European Union, while in 2021, that number was 3,030.
The document states that, overall, Georgia continues to meet the visa liberalization criteria, although a number of issues require additional efforts. Among them, the report says, high-level corruption remains a challenge that affects the political as well as the legal and economic spheres.
In addition, the document mentions that in this report, the European Commission called on Georgia to take into account the recommendations of the Venice Commission when establishing the procedures for appointing Supreme Court judges and to implement a mechanism for evaluating Supreme Court judges, which was not done.
