Turkish Erasmus Students Apply for Asylum in Europe as Their Study Visas Expire, EU Ambassador to Turkey Says – SchengenVisaInfo.com

There was a significant increase in the number of asylum applications from Turkish citizens noted in European countries last year, according to the Head of the European Union Delegation to Turkey Nikolaus Meyer Landrut.

He said that they saw Erasmus students filing an application for asylum when their visas expired for the first time in the last year, according to local media reports.

“We see, there are economic problems. If a person gets a visa and enters Germany, the potential for asylum requests increases. The possibility of asylum for people with visas has increased a lot,” Landrut pointed out, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.

Last year, the Ministry of Education of Turkey said that it received information that an increased number of students as well as teachers sent to other countries as part of the European education exchange program known as Erasmus was seeking asylum in their host countries, based on the report of the Sozcu news.

Besides, it was emphasized that the support from Erasmus students coming from Turkey was cut, with some of them stressing that they received no money for a period of three months.

In addition, the Ministry of Education urged local authorities in Turkey not to admit requests from persons if there is a risk that they will try to remain abroad.

However, Landrut said that there is no visa restriction policy for citizens of Turkey.

He considered it impossible to comment on the individual experiences of visa applicants, stressing that the number of requests from Turkey last year was over 778,000, accounting for the highest number of applications to Europe from a single country.

Besides, he added that the rejection rate was much lower than in the previous year.

“In fact, the rejection rate dropped for the first time after 2016, and it was below the world average. There are also applications made from Turkey by non-Turkish citizens. The rejection rate is higher for them,” he noted.

In addition, Landrut also acknowledged the lack of available data for this year, but he stressed that the embassies reassured him that no special restrictions were introduced on citizens and that the rejection rates remained consistent with previous years.

He added that last year, there was a significant increase in asylum requests from citizens of Turkey, coming third after Syrians and Afghan citizens.

The Erasmus program permits students to spend a period of 12 months abroad at a time, however, they are eligible to participate several times. Members of Erasmus Programs are all bloc countries, as well as Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein as well North Macedonia, Serbia, and Turkey.

In October last year, the European Union allocated €384 million under the Erasmus+ program in order to support European University Alliances.