The EU granted protection to 102,700 asylum seekers in 2012, compared with 84,300 in 2011. The largest groups of protection status in the EU last year were citizens of Syria (18,700) followed by Afghanistan (13,500) and Somalia (8,100). In 2012, the highest number of persons granted protection status was registered in Germany (22,000), followed by Sweden (15,300), the United Kingdom (14,600) and France (14,300). These figures were released Tuesday by Eurostat, the EU\'s statistical office.