Rome, Dec 19 (IANS): Italy repatriated almost 10 per cent of asylum seekers last year, data released by the European Commission showed.

The latest edition of the Commission's Atlas of Migration showed on Monday that Italy repatriated 2,790 out of 28,185 migrants whose asylum requests were turned down. Meanwhile, the average repatriation rate in the EU as a whole was 17 per cent.

EU data showed that the bloc received a total of 884,985 new asylum applications for international protection in 2022, up by nearly 65 per cent from the previous year. More than half of all asylum requests in the bloc were rejected last year, Xinhua news agency reported.

The 2022 repatriation rate in Italy is slightly higher than the previous year (nine per cent), but remains lower than 2020 (12 per cent) and significantly below 2019 (24 per cent).

Among the EU member states, Italy has taken a more hardline stance in curbing the number of migrant arrivals.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has estimated that this year, there were more than 153,530 sea arrivals of migrants to Italy through Sunday, marking the highest total since 2016.