This is the highest number of decisions in the history of the OHR, excluding 2020, which marked a peak due to the exceptional situation of the pandemic.
The Asylum and Refugee Office (OAR), which reports to the Directorate General for International Protection, resolved 96,251 international protection cases in 2024. This figure represents 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 maximum due to the exceptional situation of the pandemic.
During 2024, Spain also received 167,366 applications for international protection, according to provisional data as of 31 December. This is 2.5 per cent more than in the previous year and the highest number in the history of the OHR. Spain is thus the second largest recipient of international protection in the European Union, behind only Germany.
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The Asylum and Refugee Office resolved 96,251 international protection cases in 2024, 4.2 per cent more than in 2023
By nationality, the country of origin with the most applicants was Venezuela, with 66,134 requests, 39.5 per cent of the total, followed by Colombia (40,140). Both countries accounted for 63.5 per cent of the applications 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 applications registered.
By place of presentation, 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 of international protection
Last year, 6,355 refugee statuses were granted. The top five nationalities of those granted status were Nicaragua, Syria, Afghanistan, Colombia and Honduras. 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 protection granted in Spain. 33,534 citizens, mostly Venezuelans, have also received residence authorisation for humanitarian reasons for one year.
According to these 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 claims
In 2024, 2,084 applications for statelessness status were submitted, 86.4 per cent more than in 2023, consolidating an upward trend. A total of 911 applications have been resolved.
Statelessness is a procedure aimed at identifying among applicants persons who are not considered as nationals by any state under its law 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 new 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), bringing to more than 231,000 the number of citizens displaced by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine who have been granted temporary protection in Spain.
The Spanish government launched this emergency procedure in March 2022 and delivered the first decision on the 11th of that month, in compliance with the European Union agreement that authorised, for the first time, the application of the Temporary Protection Directive.