Fleeing Iraqis buck trend for asylum decline: UNHCR

0 Comments | AFP, March, 2007

GENEVA (AFP) — The number of Iraqis fleeing to industralised countries has surged by 77 percent in the space of a year, countering the global trend of a decline in asylum seekers, the UN refugee agency said Friday.

The accelerating flight of Iraqis stood in stark contrast with the overall fall in the number of people seeking refuge in industralised countries in 2006, marking the fifth straight year of decline, the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said in a statement.

Some 300,000 asylum applications were submitted in the 50 industralised countries surveyed last year, 10 percent fewer than in 2005 and less than half the number recorded five years ago, according to the provisional data.

The number of asylum seekers in Europe as a whole, as well...