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UNHCR: 1025 people from Azerbaijan, 2872 from Armenia seek asylum in industrialized countries this year

19 October 2011 10:27 (UTC +04:00)

Industrialized countries saw a 17 per cent increase in asylum applications in the first half of this year, with most claimants coming from countries with longstanding displacement situations, APA reports referring to UNâ€™s website. 198,300 asylum applications were lodged in the period between 1 January and 30 June 2011, compared to 169,300 in the same period a year earlier. As application rates normally peak during the second half of the year, UNHCR forecasts that 2011 may see 420,000 applications by yearâ€™s end - the highest total in eight years.
Taking the 44 countries surveyed in the report as a whole, the main countries of origin of asylum-seekers remained largely unchanged from previous surveys: Afghanistan (15,300 claims), China (11,700 claims), Serbia [and Kosovo: SC Res. 1244] (10,300 claims), Iraq (10,100 claims), and Iran (7,600 claims).
By continent, Europe registered the highest number of claims with 73 per cent of all asylum applications in industrialized countries. Only Australasia saw a significant decline in applicants: 5,100 claims compared with 6,300 a year earlier.
By country, the United States had more claims (36,400) than any other industrialized nation, followed by France (26,100), Germany (20,100), Sweden (12,600), and the United Kingdom (12,200). The Nordic region was the only part of Europe to see a fall in asylum applications. Meanwhile, in Northeast Asia applications more than doubled - 1,300 claims were lodged in Japan and South Korea compared to 600 in the first half of 2010.
The report showed that in the first quarter of this year, 575 people from Azerbaijan applied for asylum, in the second quarter this figure was 450. The applications were sent to the UNHCR regional offices and relevant organizations of the industrialized countries.
There were 1276 and 1596 asylum-seeking applicants from Armenia respectively in the first and second quarter of the year.