Brussels, 28/11/2002 (Agence Europe) - Requests for asylum in Europe increased by 8% between August-September 2002 but fell by 6% between 2001-2002 (for the months of January and September), according to statistics from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
Between January-September 2001-2002, with four countries in the lead, to which the United Kingdom should certainly be added, which occupied first place in 2001 with 67,210 requests but for whom statistics for 2002 are not yet available. During the first nine months of 2002, Germany was the country receiving the most requests (54,272, falling by 18%), followed by France (37,310 requests, rising by 8%), Austria (27,751, a rise of 24%) and Sweden (24,022, a rise of 52%). On top of 10,000 applications for asylum we also discover that between January-September 2002, in Switzerland requests of 19,246, Netherlands (15,336), Belgium (14,032) and Norway (13,115).
In September 2002, Germany received the most applications for asylum (6,286) but with an increase of only 9% since August. Austria comes next, with 4,527 requests for asylum and increase of 39% compared to the previous month. France has experienced a decrease of 9% with a figure of 3,438 requests made in September. In Sweden there were 3,182 requests for asylum (-6%). Figures for the United Kingdom have not been released. Luxembourg experienced the sharpest percentage rise (89%) but at a total of only 125 requests.