European quarterly asylum statistics

We now have the statistics concerning the number of new asylum seekers in Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand for the third quarter of 2001. Unfortunately these are not quite complete - the UK for example, which is currently the second largest recipient of asylum seekers in Europe is now only issuing statistics quarterly, rather than monthly, and there is quite a time lag before these are issued. Nevertheless there is enough data available to draw some general conclusions, including the following:

The total number of asylum applications submitted in Europe during the third quarter increased by 20 percent over the previous quarter, and is 14 percent higher than in the same period last year.

The number of Afghans seeking asylum In Europe rose by 12 percent over the previous quarter, and the number of Iraqis rose even more - by 34 percent.

Afghans remain the single largest group of asylum seekers coming to Europe, with a total of 27,418 asylum applications so far this year, followed by the Iraqis with 26,892.

Germany remains the country receiving the most asylum applications with a total of 66,017 during the first three quarters of 2001.