Madrid, May 3 (IANS): The number of Venezuelan nationals seeking asylum in Spain in the first three months of the year has tripled compared to the same period last year, the Ministry of Interior data said on Friday.

A total of 12,137 Venezuelans had submitted asylum requests as of April 15, official figures show.

The number of applications by Venezuelans has increased in recent years, from 596 in 2015 to 20,063 in 2018.

Between January and March this year, there were a total of 9,939 requests, versus 3,463 in the first three months of 2018, which translates as a 187 per cent hike, according to official data cited by Efe news.

Since 2016, Venezuelans have made up the largest portion of foreign citizens who have sought international protection in Spain. That year, some 4,195 Venezuelan nationals asked for protection, versus 596 the previous year -- an increase of 603 per cent.

In 2017, some 10,627 Venezuelans asked for asylum in the European country, a number that almost doubled to 20,054 in 2018.

In March, the Spanish government granted some 400 Venezuelans residency permits on humanitarian grounds, a measure that is set out in law that can be another option when asylum requests fail.

The government came up with this solution so that Venezuelans who have not been granted refugee or asylum status are not left in legal limbo, according to the Undersecretary of the Ministry of the Interior, Isabel Goicoechea.

According to the latest official figures obtained via the padrón, Spain's local residents' register, there were 137,589 Venezuelans registered at addresses in Spain on January 1, 2019, of which 79,001 were women and 58,588 were men.