(Bloomberg) -- Even as populist parties push anti-immigration policies ahead of European Union legislative elections in May, the latest data show the number of asylum-seekers fell more than 10 percent last year to less than half the peak in 2015. In Italy, where Deputy Premier Matteo Salvini of the rightist League has pushed for tighter restrictions on refugees from across the Mediterranean, the number of asylum applications plunged 61 percent from 2017, the steepest drop in the EU.
To contact the reporter on this story: Jones Hayden in Brussels at jhayden1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Fergal O'Brien at fobrien@bloomberg.net, Peter Chapman
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