Sharp rise in asylum industrialised countries: UNHCR report Asylum Trends 2013

UN refugee agency (UNHCR) on 21 March 2014 released report Asylum Trends 2013 claiming sharp rise in asylum in 44 industrialised countries, over the course of last year. The report claimed that this asylum is primarily driven by the Syrian crisis.

The UNHCR’s report says that 712700 people have applied for asylum in 2013 in countries namely North America, Europe, East Asia and the Pacific. This number is the highest total for any year since 2001.

Among the top-10 countries of origin, six are experiencing violence or conflict
• Syria
• Afghanistan
• Eritrea
• Somalia
• Iraq
• Pakistan

Afghanistan in previous two years was the world's principal country of origin for asylum-seekers. But this time it has been ranked at third position in terms of new claims behind Syria and the Russian Federation.  Acceptance rates for people were highest from countries Syria, Eritrea, Iraq, Somalia and Afghanistan. The acceptance rate was between 62 percent and 95 percent. Acceptance rate was significantly low at around 28 percent and 5 percent respectively for nationals of Russian Federation and Serbia [and Kosovo: Security Council resolution 1244 (1999)].

As per the latest release, the biggest increase in asylum applicants by regions was in the 38 European countries that received 484600 claims, which was an increase of third form in 2012.

Major receivers of the new asylum claims were
• Germany the largest single recipient with 109600 claims
• France with 60100
• Sweden with 54300