Brussels, 28/03/2011 (Agence Europe) - The number of asylum seekers in the rich countries fell in 2010, particularly in the south of Europe, where the number of asylum seekers arriving from Africa and Asia was down by one third, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (HCR) announced on Monday. According to HCR figures, 358,800 people applied for asylum in 44 industrialised countries in 2010 (the 27 of the European Union plus Albania, Australia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Canada, Croatia, Iceland, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Lichtenstein, Montenegro, New Zealand, Norway, Serbia, Switzerland, Turkey, the United States and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia), 5% less than 2009 figures and around 42% less than the highest level of the decade, which was reached in 2001, when nearly 620,000 asylum applications were made, HCR explains.
“The dynamics of asylum are changing. Asylum claims in the industrialised world are much lower than a decade ago while year-on-year levels are up in only a handful of countries”, the High Commissioner for Refugees, António Guterres, explained in a press release. He went on to say that “we need to study the root causes to see if the decline is because of fewer push factors in the areas of origin, or tighter migration control in countries of asylum”.
The HCR notes that “year-on-year reductions have been observed in most regions, particularly Europe, North America and northern Asia. Within Europe, the greatest decreases concern southern Europe, where applications were down 33% compared to 2009.” This was “mainly because fewer people requested protection in Malta, Italy and Greece. However, this decline was offset by increases elsewhere, especially in Germany (49%), Sweden (32%), Denmark (30%), Turkey (18%), Belgium (16%) and France (13%)”, the HCR adds. And in the Nordic countries, the increases in Denmark and Sweden were offset by substantial declines in Norway (-42%) and Finland (-32%).
According to the report, the highest main destination countries of asylum seekers in 2010 were the United States, France, Germany, Sweden and Canada. “Together, the top five countries of asylum accounted for more than half (56%) of all asylum applications covered in this report.” The United States is still the largest asylum recipient in the world, for the fifth consecutive year, with an increase in the number of Chinese and Mexican asylum seekers in particular. France holds on to its position as host to the second-largest number of new applications, the HCR continues, with 47,800 cases recorded in 2010, followed by Germany (41,330).
“[In these two countries] the increases can partly be attributed to a rise in asylum seekers from Serbia and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. That development is widely attributed to the introduction of visa-free entry to the European Union for nationals in these two countries since December 2009”, the HCR explains. Afghanistan has fallen into second place with a “decrease of 9% compared to the previous year”. The HCR goes on to state that “for the first time since 2005, Iraq was not one of the top two countries of origin of asylum seekers. It dropped to fourth place, followed by the Russian Federation. Somalia, which occupied the third spot in 2009, fell to sixth in 2010.” (S.P./transl.fl)