The number of asylum applications in Austria continues to fall, but the profile of applicants is changing noticeably. Women are now submitting protection claims far more frequently, while the number of unaccompanied minor refugees has reached a historic low.
Just two years ago, women were clearly underrepresented among asylum seekers. Their share has since stabilized at just over 40 percent. This increase is largely due to legal changes that have improved asylum prospects for women from Afghanistan. Many Afghan women who previously held only subsidiary protection reapplied for asylum and are now being granted full refugee status more often than men from the same country. Among applicants from Syria and Iran, the gender balance in positive decisions has also become nearly equal.
The number of female asylum seekers in Austria has increased by 42% since 2017.
A look back highlights the scale of this shift. For decades, men made up the vast majority of asylum applicants. Even after major refugee movements, the proportion of women generally remained below one third. Following a brief increase in 2017, the female share declined steadily and reached a low point in 2022, when only a very small fraction of applications came from women.
At the same time, the total number of people seeking protection continues to decrease. In the first eleven months of the current year, significantly fewer applications were filed than in the same period last year. The decline is particularly pronounced among unaccompanied minors. Their numbers are at the lowest level since the mid-2000s and far below the peaks of previous years, when tens of thousands of applications from this group were recorded.
What has not changed is that unaccompanied minor asylum seekers are overwhelmingly male. The vast majority of applications filed this year came from boys. In addition, several thousand asylum applications were submitted for children who either arrived together with their families or were born in Austria after their parents’ arrival.
>>-> EU tightens deportation rules: Parliament upends old majorities
>>-> Asylum policy shift: Austria pushes alliance for return centers outside the EU
>>-> Integration: New Penalties versus ECJ Ruling
By Okay Altinisik | 28-12-2025, 18:22:48
Prestige on Credit? Already 19 Deaths from Hunger in the British Commonwealth
Great Britain is said to have lured developing countries with, as has now been shown, empty promises, to project greatness.
Turkey’s “Sultans of the Net” Are World Champions: Hope (for a New Government) Is Half the Battle
An opposition that is suddenly no longer coerced and bullied by the state, and national team players who prevail against the best in the world…
Earthquake in Venezuela: Are Sanctions to Blame for the High Missing and Death Tolls?
A look at past disasters shows a recurring pattern: the number of casualties depends less on the strength of an earthquake alone and more on the resilience of buildings, thus, the role of international sanctions should be critically examined.
A Black Day for American Fundamental Rights
For conservatives, this represents a return to judicial restraint and to an originalist interpretation of the Constitution. For liberals and civil rights advocates, it signifies the gradual dismantling of the legal protections intended to shield individuals from the state and corporations. Perhaps it is not an exaggeration to say: “The America we know no longer exists.”