| 14 January 2010 According to a Eurostat report published on Tuesday 8 December, during activities for Human Rights Day on 10 December, EU27 member states granted protection to 76,300 asylum seekers in 2008. The largest groups of beneficiaries of protection status in the EU27 were citizens of Iraq (16,600 persons or 22% of the total number of persons granted protection status), Somalia (9,500 or 12%), Russia (7,400 or 10%), Afghanistan (5,000 or 7%) and Eritrea (4,600 or 6%). Nearly 30% of EU27 asylum decisions at the first instance resulted in protection status. In 2008, 281,100 decisions on asylum applications were made in the EU27, of which 209,200 were first instance decisions and 71,900 final decisions on appeal. At the first instance, 59,300 persons were granted protection status, and 17,000 received a final positive decision on appeal. The rate of recognition of asylum applicants, i.e. the share of positive decisions in the total number of decisions, was 28% in the first instance and 24% for final decisions. Of the 76,300 persons who were granted protection status, 40,000 persons were granted refugee status, 25,500 subsidiary protection and 10,800 granted authorisation to stay for humanitarian reasons. Two thirds of decisions granting protection status in the EU27 were taken in France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy and Sweden. In 2008, the highest number of persons granted protection status were registered in France (11,500), followed by Germany (10,700), the United Kingdom (10,200), Italy (9,700), Sweden (8,700), the Netherlands (6,100) and Austria (5,700). The rate of recognition varies considerably among member states. The highest rates in the first instance were recorded in Poland (65%), Lithuania and Portugal (both 64%), Austria (62%) and Denmark (58%), and the lowest in Greece (less than 1%), Slovenia (3%), Spain (5%), the Czech Republic, France and Romania (all 16%). The highest rates of recognition for final decisions were registered in Finland (87%), the Netherlands (52%) and Sweden (49%). However, it should be kept in mind that the country of citizenship of applicants differs greatly between member states. Iraqis were the single largest group of persons granted protection status in ten EU27 member states. Of the 16,600 Iraqis granted protection status in the EU27, 6,400 were registered in Germany, 4,000 in Sweden and 2,300 in the Netherlands. Of the 9,500 Somalis granted protection, 3,500 were recorded in Italy and 1,500 each in Sweden and the Netherlands, and of the 7,400 Russians, 2,700 were in Poland, 2,000 in Austria and 1,200 in France.
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