Recall when Donald Trump cast doubt on the intentions of many of the Syrian refugees by claiming a disproportionate number were “young, strong men”? Most media quickly attempted to debunk his claim.

Well, Trump’s claim now seems borne out by data from the Pew Research Center.

A shocking report released yesterday on European asylum applications in 2015 shows that, indeed, the refugees are disproportionately represented by “military-age” adult males — to an alarming degree.

A majority of the applicants came from Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq in what has become the biggest demographic shift in Europe since the fall of the Soviet Union.

From the Pew report:

As a result, about four-in-ten asylum seekers in Europe in 2015 (42%) were young men ages 18 to 34. This was also true for most leading origin countries: 39% of those from Syria were young men, as were 38% of those from Afghanistan and 47% of those from Iraq. Young adult males made up a larger share of asylum seekers from some origin countries. For example, roughly three-fourths of asylum seekers from Gambia (80%), Pakistan (76%) and Bangladesh (76%) were young adult men in 2015. The demographic profile of asylum seekers in destination countries varies considerably. About four-in-ten asylum seekers applying in Germany (39%) in 2015 were young adult males, about the same level as asylum seekers to Europe (42%) as a whole. In Hungary, about half (51%) of asylum seekers were more young adult men. In Sweden, just 28% of asylum seekers were young men in 2015. Meanwhile, young adult men made up 74% of asylum seekers in Italy, the highest share of any country in 2015. Europe has also seen a spike in the number of unaccompanied minors (children under 18 who arrived in Europe without adult guardians) applying for asylum in recent years. Between 2008 and 2015, 198,500 unaccompanied minors applied for asylum in the European Union, Norway and Switzerland, of which nearly half (48% or about 96,000) arrived in 2015. Among all first-time asylum applications in 2015, nearly 7% were from unaccompanied minors, the highest share since data on unaccompanied minors became available in 2008.

Asylum seekers to Europe are largely young and male https://t.co/TgxYJPGB4e pic.twitter.com/cFINvHayOP — Pew Research Center (@pewresearch) August 3, 2016

For purposes of comparison, of the 4.8 million Syrian refugees the UN has registered, the population split is nearly even: 50.3 percent were men, 49.7 percent were women. And yet, the Syrian refugees who applied for asylum in Europe last year were 71 percent male to 29 percent female.

The data also show the breakdown of UN-registered Syrian refugee men to be 30 percent. However, men 18+ arriving in Europe were 53 percent.



According to the report, more than half of the applicants were from either Syria, Afghanistan or Iraq:

The leading country of citizenship for Europe’s asylum applicants in 2015 was Syria, which accounted for 378,000 asylum seekers, or 29% of all applicants. Second was Afghanistan, with 193,000 asylum seekers in 2015. Well over half (53%) of all asylum seekers in 2015 held citizenship from one of these countries or Iraq.

Roughly half of refugees in 2015 trace origins to just 3 countries: Syria, Afghanistan,Iraq https://t.co/VYZFfvNHv8 pic.twitter.com/QXwigJQytT — Pew Research Center (@pewresearch) August 3, 2016

As CNBC notes, this is the biggest demographic shift in Europe since the fall of the Soviet Union:

A record 1.3 million migrants applied for asylum in the Europe in 2015 – nearly twice as many as the previous high point in 1992, around the collapse of the Soviet Union, according to new research by the U.S.-based Pew Research Center. Since 1985, Europe has received about 11.6 million asylum applications, with last year’s 1.3 million amounting to about one-tenth of all applications received during the past 30 years by the 28 members of the EU, Norway and Switzerland, Pew noted. It used data collected by Eurostat, the EU’s statistical agency, to inform its research.

The report finds that Germany was the top destination, with 33 percent of the asylum applications in 2015, followed by Hungary, Sweden and Austria:

Hungary received 2d largest number of asylum applicants in 2015, abt 13% of Europe’s total https://t.co/aPFUyHvMly pic.twitter.com/YMuYOLWG2l — Pew Research Center (@pewresearch) August 3, 2016

This is having profound a profound impact on European domestic politics, with wide majorities unhappy with how their respective country is handling the new invasion of Europe.

94% of Greeks and 88% of Swedes disapprove of how the EU has handled the refugee issue https://t.co/f5JchTW0O9 pic.twitter.com/qGYVEEPFAm — Pew Research Center (@pewresearch) August 3, 2016

Whether due to pragmatism or political pressure, some countries are beginning to buck the EU on immigration. For instance, Finland has recently rejected 77 percent of Iraqi asylum applications.

The Daily Express reports:

FINLAND is facing a showdown with Brussels over its border policies after ruling three quarters of recent Iraqi asylum seekers are economic migrants and unveiling plans to send them home. The Scandinavian state has taken a tough stance on new arrivals from Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia after officially declaring the three ‘safe countries’. The rule change has allowed Finnish ministers to deny 77 per cent of asylum applications from Iraqis last month, with those migrants now set to be deported back to the Middle East.

The wave of recent terror attacks in Europe from asylum seekers and other immigrants is fueling skepticism of the handling of both the terrorism and immigration issues by European leaders.

My latest:Europe terror attacks spotlight security failings amid refugee crisishttps://t.co/aGHOCCpGfZ — Benjamin Weinthal (@BenWeinthal) July 28, 2016

33% of the French are “confident in their national leaders’ ability to fight terrorism” – Le Figaro https://t.co/WckFe1VB1s — Jubal E. Harshaw (@alimhaider) July 30, 2016

Survey: Europeans fear refugees raise terror threat: In the minds of Europeans, the “refugee crisis and threa… https://t.co/RvUSWfK8FD — DW | Europe (@dw_europe) July 12, 2016

Weinthal’s article notes that German Interior Ministry officials note there are 59 ongoing investigations of refugees involved in “terrorist structures.”

The current flow of immigration into Europe is creating future problems:

With present flow of 90% male refugee children to Sweden, the Swedish Teen Sex Ratio will in 4 months be like in China: 120 boys/100 girls. — Hans Rosling (@HansRosling) November 26, 2015

Sweden and Denmark reportedly ALREADY have the highest rates of sexual assault in Europe.

But it’s unlikely that the EU will remain alone with its terror and immigration related issues:

BREAKING: Obama Admin Extends Asylum for Syrian Refugees. Refugees Can’t Be Legally Removed From US Through 2018 https://t.co/N8IEmdsv6c — Adam Kredo (@Kredo0) August 1, 2016

Number of girls in U.S. subjected to female genital mutilation has tripled since 1990, GAO blames immigration https://t.co/CLWNxezxMS — Elizabeth Harrington (@LizWFB) August 1, 2016

Despite the efforts of Western political officials to dismiss these issues, they’re unlikely to quell citizen concerns anytime soon.