The decreasing trend in the number of applications for asylum in Slovakia has continued over the past three years. Of the more than 730 applications for asylum submitted in 2012, it was conferred in 32 cases, and 104 were granted subsidiary protection, meaning they were not given the asylum status but still face danger in their country of origin. In 2015, a mere 139 applications had been submitted by September and only 7 people were successful and 40 were given subsidiary protection. All-in-all, applicants for asylum in Slovakia were mostly coming from Somalia, Afghanistan, Georgia, Congo, Armenia and Eritrea. In 2014 they were supplemented with Syrians, Vietnamese and Ukrainians, and in 2015 with Russians and Iranians. On the topic of asylum seekers and migrants, several former political representatives of V4 states (composed of Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary) rejected their country's part in the common EU migration policy's failure. "Have you ever heard of a migrant who wants to go to Slovakia? I haven't. Maybe it's our fault, but they in fact want to go to Germany, Sweden, Austria," stated Eduard Kukan, former head of the Slovak diplomacy during the reign of Prime Minister Mikuláš Dzurinda. Speaking at a discussion forum in Vienna organised on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the V4 group, Kukan continued: "If you want Slovakia to accept migrants, we'll have to lock them in a prison, otherwise they will run away from here right away."
And looking at the topic of migration from a different perspective, OECD statistics show that Slovakia is catching up with the economic migration leaders among advanced countries. The figures revealed that Ireland reported the highest economic migration with 20.8 percent of people leaving their homeland. Conversely, the United States and Japan had less than 1 percent. Slovakia closely follows countries with high economic migration as 10.4 percent of Slovaks left their homes, reads the Hospodárske Noviny daily.
