A woman carries a baby at the Skaramangas refugee camp, on the outskirts of Athens, on June 5, 2019 | Louisa Gouliamaki/AFP via Getty Images Asylum seekers in EU on the rise again: report Analysis shows more applications from Latin American, western Balkan countries with visa-free travel.

The number of people seeking asylum in the EU has increased so far this year, bucking a downward trend since the height of the refugee crisis in 2015, according to an analysis by German media.

From January to April, around 206,500 people applied for asylum for the first time in the EU — a 15 percent increase from the same period last year, according to publishing group Funke Mediengruppe, citing provisional monthly data from EU countries.

The increase is attributed to a dramatic rise in people applying from Venezuela, Colombia and the western Balkans, who don’t need a visa to travel to the EU.

Since more than 1 million migrants came to Europe in 2015, many seeking refuge from violence in the Middle East and Africa, the number of people applying for asylum in the EU had been dropping. This was due in part to Europe’s efforts to reduce migration, including a controversial 2016 deal for Turkey to take back migrants who came via its shores to reach the EU.

In a sign that downward trend might be stalling, the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) indicated in a report for March that asylum applications are on the rise, with a 20 percent increase that month compared to March 2018.

The Funke analysis observed the number of people applying from crisis-hit Venezuela between January and April shot up by 121 percent to 14,257 compared to the same time period last year.

The second largest number of asylum seekers now come from Venezuela, behind only Syria and ahead of Afghanistan. While the number of people seeking asylum from Syria decreased by 8 percent, the number of people from Afghanistan increased by 36 percent.

The number of Colombians seeking asylum rose to 8,097 — a 156 percent increase.

In a separate interview with Welt published Monday, the head of the EU’s border agency Frontex said the EU would face the challenges of immigration for years to come.

“The EU remains under pressure — and it will remain so for the coming decades,” said Executive Director Fabrice Leggeri.

“Therefore the EU and its member states must also collaborate closely with the countries of origin to make life more livable in those places. Politics should not be limited to border protection,” he said.

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