Number of asylum-seekers in industrialized world continues to fall sharply: UN

The number of people seeking asylum in industrialized countries has continued to fall during the first half of this year, maintaining the sharp downward trend that began in 2002, the United Nations refugee agency said today.

Following a March report that showed 2004 with the lowest level in 16 years, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) expressed the hope that such a decline would undermine public campaigns that seek tighter controls on immigration.

The report released today showed that in the first half of 2005, the number of asylum seekers arriving in all 36 listed industrialized countries fell by 18 per cent, compared to the same period last year (from 189,900 to 156,200), and by 35 per cent compared to the same period in 2003, when 240,800 people claimed asylum.

The number of new asylum applications in the 24 European Union (EU) countries covered by the report was 112,200 – 17 percent fewer than during the first six months of 2004. The EU total is 30 per cent lower than during the same period two years ago. No quarterly figures are available for Italy, so that country is also excluded from all historical comparisons.

The most dramatic change shown by the report was in the 10 new EU countries, which had to some extent bucked the prevailing downward trend last year. During the first six months of this year, the number of people arriving in these states fell by 34 per cent compared to the same period last year.

France was the top receiving country, with 27,400 applications during the first six months of 2005. France's half-yearly totals have remained remarkably steady over the past two and a half years (27,900 and 31,400 in the two semesters in 2003, and 30,000 and 28,600 in 2004). Nevertheless, the overall trend there has also been slightly downwards.

The next largest receiving countries so far in 2005 are the United States with 25,400 asylum applications, down 8 per cent on the same period last year; then the UK, down 23 percent to 15,500; Germany, down 29 percent to 13,300; Austria, down 26 per cent to 9,200; Canada, down 26 per cent to 8,700; and Sweden, down 30 per cent to 8,000.

Serbia and Montenegro (which includes Kosovo), was the leading country of origin, with 10,800 asylum applicants during the first six months of this year. China and the Russian Federation – which includes Chechnya – came next (both with 9,400), followed by Turkey (7,100), Iraq (5,700) and Haiti (5,300).

Eight of the top ten countries of origin saw their numbers of asylum seekers fall – the exceptions being the Iraqis and Haitians who went up by 31 per cent and 20 per cent respectively compared to the first six months of last year. After falling away spectacularly during 2003, the number of Iraqi asylum seekers began creeping up again half way through 2004, and has remained fairly steady since then.