Malta granted protection to almost 1,300 asylum seekers last year, with Syrians topping the list.

According to figures released by Eurostat, Malta granted protection to 1,295 people, including 360 Syrians, 300 Libyans and 295 Somalis, in 2014.

Of the total, 200 were granted refugee status, 925 subsidiary protection and 165 were authorised to remain on humanitarian grounds.

While both refugee and subsidiary protection status are defined by EU law, humanitarian status is granted in line with national legislation.

Data for all 27 EU member states shows that in 2014, the EU doubled the protection status granted to asylum seekers compared to the previous year, with a total in-crease of 185,000.

The rate of recognition of asylum applicants – the number of positive decisions as compared to the total number of decisions – was 73 per cent for first instance decisions in Malta.

Germany granted the highest number of people protected status

For final decisions on appeal, the recognition rate was 13 per cent.

The largest group of beneficiaries of protection status in the EU in 2014 remained citizens of Syria, at 68,400, followed at a distance by citizens of Eritrea, at 14,600, and those of Afghanistan, who numbered 14,100.

This means that more than one out of every three persons granted protection status in the EU was Syrian.

The number of Syrians has almost doubled compared with 2013 and last year represented the largest group granted protection status in nearly half of the member states.

Of the 68,400 Syrians granted protection status in the EU, more than 60 per cent were recorded in just two member countries: Germany, with 25,700, and Sweden, with 16,800.

Germany was the country that registered the highest number of people whom it granted protected status, followed by Sweden, France and Italy.