The number of people seeking asylum in the West jumped 20 percent last year, with record numbers fleeing conflicts in Libya, Syria and Ivory Coast, the UN refugee agency said yesterday.
The largest regional rise was in those applying for refugee status in southern Europe, it said. Most arrived by boat in Italy and Malta, originating from North Africa or sub-Saharan Africa. Turkey also saw a sharp influx of Iraqis.
Overall, 441,300 asylum claims were registered in 44 industrialized countries last year compared with 368,000 the previous year, with Afghans forming the biggest group, followed by Chinese and Iraqis, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said.
“Reflecting turmoil in West Africa and in the Arab world, asylum seekers from Cote d’Ivoire [Ivory Coast], Libya, Syria and other countries reached record levels in 2011, with 16,700 more claims than in 2010,” the Geneva-based agency said in a report.
Last year’s figures were the highest since 2003, when more than 505,000 requests were lodged in industrialized countries.
Asylum and immigration in general is a political flashpoint in many European countries, including Britain, France and Italy, as well as in Australia and the US.
UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said that it was important to put the latest figures in perspective.
“The number of asylum claims received across all industrialized countries is still smaller than the population of Dadaab, a single refugee camp in northeast Kenya,” he said.
The sprawling Dadaab complex, the world’s largest refugee camp, now shelters 462,856 Somalians who have fled war and drought in their anarchic homeland.
A record 1,500 migrants, mainly from Somalia and other parts of Africa, died trying to reach European shores last year, the UNHCR said on Jan. 31.
About 35,700 Afghans sought asylum in the West last year, a 34 percent jump, and 24,400 Chinese lodged claims, half of them in the US. Iraqis were the third-largest group, filing 23,500 requests in industrialized countries.
Europe was the preferred destination for refugees, with the continent’s 38 countries receiving 327,200 asylum claims, up 19 percent from 2010. The EU, with 27 member states, had 277,400 claims, a rise of 15 percent.
However, the US was again the largest recipient of new asylum claims, accounting for 74,000 applications, or one in six overall. Requests there grew 33 percent, half of them by asylum-seekers from China, Mexico and El Salvador.
Canada had 25,300 applications, a 9 percent rise.
Referring to North America, the UNHCR said: “Although 2011 is the highest level in almost a decade for this region, it is two-thirds that of 2001, when close to 150,000 applications in total were lodged in Canada and the United States of America.”
France had the second-largest number of asylum requests last year at 51,900, up 8 percent, because of more claims from Armenians and Ivorians, although Russians formed the main group.
Germany was third with 45,700, an 11 percent increase, because of higher numbers from Afghanistan, Syria and Pakistan.
The number of asylum-seekers in Australia and New Zealand fell 9 percent last year to 11,800, mainly because fewer would-be refugees arrived in Australia by boat, it said.
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s asylum policy was thrown into confusion last year when the Australian High Court rejected her plan for a refugee swap with Malaysia. Opposition in parliament then forced the government to abandon tough offshore processing popular with many voters.
“Asylum levels in Australia remain below those recorded by many other industrialized and non-industrialized countries,” the UNHCR said.
Two former Chilean ministers are among four candidates competing this weekend for the presidential nomination of the left ahead of November elections dominated by rising levels of violent crime. More than 15 million voters are eligible to choose today between former minister of labor Jeannette Jara, former minister of the interior Carolina Toha and two members of parliament, Gonzalo Winter and Jaime Mulet, to represent the left against a resurgent right. The primary is open to members of the parties within Chilean President Gabriel Boric’s ruling left-wing coalition and other voters who are not affiliated with specific parties. A recent poll by the
TENSIONS HIGH: For more than half a year, students have organized protests around the country, while the Serbian presaident said they are part of a foreign plot About 140,000 protesters rallied in Belgrade, the largest turnout over the past few months, as student-led demonstrations mount pressure on the populist government to call early elections. The rally was one of the largest in more than half a year student-led actions, which began in November last year after the roof of a train station collapsed in the northern city of Novi Sad, killing 16 people — a tragedy widely blamed on entrenched corruption. On Saturday, a sea of protesters filled Belgrade’s largest square and poured into several surrounding streets. The independent protest monitor Archive of Public Gatherings estimated the
Irish-language rap group Kneecap on Saturday gave an impassioned performance for tens of thousands of fans at the Glastonbury Festival despite criticism by British politicians and a terror charge for one of the trio. Liam Og O hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, has been charged under the UK’s Terrorism Act with supporting a proscribed organization for allegedly waving a Hezbollah flag at a concert in London in November last year. The rapper, who was charged under the anglicized version of his name, Liam O’Hanna, is on unconditional bail before a further court hearing in August. “Glastonbury,
The Vatican Museums on Thursday unveiled the last and most important of the restored Raphael Rooms, the spectacularly frescoed reception rooms of the Apostolic Palace that in some ways rival the Sistine Chapel as the peak of high Renaissance artistry. A decade-long project to clean and restore the largest of the four Raphael Rooms uncovered a novel mural painting technique that Renaissance painter and architect Raphael began, but never completed. He used oil paint directly on the wall, and arranged a grid of nails embedded in the walls to hold in place the resin surface onto which he painted. Vatican Museums officials
RSS