In Europe, the largest relative increase in annual asylum levels occurred in the eight Southern European countries which received 66,800 asylum requests during 2011, an 87 per cent increase compared to 2010.
This increase is due mainly to boat arrivals in Italy and Malta and to the registration of greater numbers of individual requests for international protection in Turkey (+74%). “The large number of asylum claims clearly shows 2011 to have been a year of great difficulty for very many people. We can be thankful only that throughout this the international system of asylum has held firm,” said António Guterres, the UN’s High Commissioner for Refugees.
“Still, it is important to put these 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.”
Based on the first indicator (national population), between 2007 and 2011 the two Mediterranean islands of Malta and Cyprus received, on average, the highest number of asylum-seekers compared to their national population: 20.1 and 17.1 applicants per 1,000 inhabitants, respectively.
Sweden ranked third (15.6 applicants per 1,000 inhabitants), followed by
Liechtenstein (14.7 applicants per 1,000 inhabitants), Norway (11.7 applicants per 1,000 inhabitants), and Switzerland (9.8 applicants per 1,000 inhabitants).
The United States of America and France, the two main recipients of new asylum-seekers during this period, were ranked respectively 24th and 14th, with an average of one and three asylum- seekers per 1,000 inhabitants.
Comparing the number of asylumseekers to the Gross Domestic Product (PPP ) of a country reveals a different picture.
Here, the United States of America and France are the countries with the highest number of asylum-seekers (5.9 and 6.1 applicants per capita each) compared to the national economy, followed by Germany (4.4 applicants per capita), Turkey (4.1 applicants per capita), and the United Kingdom (4.0).
Taken as a whole, the 38 countries of Europe together registered 327,200 claims, more than any other region and a 19 percent increase over 2010. North America received 99,400 claims, almost a quarter more than the total a year earlier. Japan and the Republic of Korea registered a record 2,900 claims, a 77 percent increase over 2010.
Only the Nordic countries and Australasia saw asylum seeker numbers declining, with falls of 10 percent (45,700 claims) and 9 percent (11,800 claims) respectively.
Reflecting turmoil in West Africa and in the Arab world, asylum-seekers from Côte
d’Ivoire, Libya, Syria, and other countries reached record levels in 2011 with 16,700 more claims than in 2010.
The country of origin of the largest number of claimants was Afghanistan, with a 34 percent increase over 2010 to 35,700. China remained the second largest source country (24,400 claimants) followed by Iraq (23,500).
Read: Asylum Levels and Trends in Industrialized Countries
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