UN reports nearly 50 per cent increase in Iraqi asylum-seekers in industrialized world

Almost 20,000 Iraqis applied for asylum in industrialized countries in the first half of this year, up 45 per cent on the previous six months, reflecting the unrelenting violence in the strife-torn country, according to provisional statistics released by the United Nations refugee agency today.

If current trends are maintained, by the end of the year the number of Iraqi asylum seekers might reach the levels witnessed between 2000 and 2002, when an average of 40,000 to 50,000 Iraqis sought asylum each year in the 36 industrialized countries included in UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) statistics.

An estimated 2.2 million Iraqis are currently outside their home country, primarily in neighbouring countries such as Syria and Jordan, which are not included in the industrialized country statistics.

UNHCR, using information provided by governments, said about 19,800 asylum claims were lodged in the 36 industrialized countries during the review period, compared to 13,600 in the second half of 2006. The 2007 figures are more than double those for the first six months of last year, when a total of 8,500 asylum applications were submitted.

Some 9,300 applications, or almost half of all requests, were submitted in Sweden. The large Iraqi community there and its strong social network might account for the high number. Greece registered some 3,500 asylum claims, compared to 1,400 during the whole of 2006, while Spain and Germany recorded 1,500 and 820 applications respectively.

When all nationalities are taken into account, the United States was by far the largest recipient of new asylum claims during the first six months of 2007 with an estimated 26,800, some 1,200 more than during the second semester of 2006. Sweden remained the second largest with a total of 17,700, a 14 per cent increase over the second half of last year.

Over the past few years, the overall number of asylum claims in the industrialized countries has decreased continuously, but the trend was reversed in the second half of last year when numbers started to rise. Assuming current patterns remain unchanged, it can be expected that asylum claims lodged in industrialized countries in 2007 might be between 290,000 and 320,000, the first annual increase since 2001.

The main countries of origin in the first six months of this year were Iraq (19,800), China (8,600), Pakistan (7,300), Serbia and Montenegro (7,200) and the Russia (6,500). Separate statistics for Serbia and the recently independent Montenegro are not available.