Single men don’t make up up to 90% of asylum seekers
During a reading former Belgian asylum and migration secretary Theo Francken (Flemish nationalist) spoke of between 80% and 90% of asylum seekers being single men, but Belgium’s federal asylum agency Fedasil says this is not true. Figures for 2015-2019 point to male singles making up shares of 34% to 44%.
Mr Francken later clarified that he was talking about 2015 when the asylum crisis was at its height, but even at this time figures like this were never reached.
Figures from the United Nations Refugee Agency UNHCR show that only 58% of the million refugees reaching Europe via the Mediterranean in that year were men, while the gender of a further 25% isn’t known. The 58% men, however, includes singles but also men accompanied by their family.