São Paulo – In 2013, for the first time, Syrians made the most asylum claims, to 44 different industrialized countries, according to the Asylum Trends 2013 report released last Thursday (20th) by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (Unhcr). As per the survey, 612,730 asylum requests were made to industrialized countries in 2013, the third straight year of increase, and the second highest number in the last 20 years. The number of requests was only higher in 2001. A total of 56,400 Syrians requested asylum.<\/p>\n
According to the Unhcr, the figures in the report are submitted monthly by the countries surveyed, and the latest edition is based on figures available in the Unhcr databank as of March 12th.<\/p>\n
The survey covers 44 countries: Albania, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Malta, Montenegro, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, South Korea, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Macedonia, Turkey, United Kingdom and United States. Of these, 38 are European and six are non-European: Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, United States and Canada. <\/p>\n
Syrians accounted for 9.4% of all asylum-seekers, followed by Russians (6.7%), Afghanistan (6.5%), Iraq (6.4%), Serbia and Kosovo (5.8%), Pakistan (4.4%), Iran (4%), Somalia (3.9%), Eritrea (3.7%), China (3.4%) and Nigeria (2.5%).<\/p>\n
The countries that received the most asylum requests were Germany (18%), United States (14%), France (10%), Sweden (9%), Turkey (7%), United Kingdom (5%), Italy (5), Australia (4%), Switzerland (3%), Hungary (3%) and Austria (3%). In 2011 and 2012, the United States topped the list.<\/p>\n
According to the study, the higher number of Syrian asylum-seekers is a result of the conflict underway in the country for three years now.<\/p>\n
“With the armed conflict and the humanitarian situation deteriorating in the course of 2013, the Syrian Arab Republic became for the first time the main country of origin of asylum-seekers in industrialized countries. Provisional data indicate that some 56,400 Syrians requested refugee status in 2013, more than double the number of 2012 (25,200 claims) and six times more than in 2011 (8,500 claims), the year when armed conflict began,” according to the report.<\/p>\n
Although the report does not cover some of the countries which have received asylum requests, the document acknowledges that Middle East and North Africa countries close to next to Syria received the bulk of requests. “Despite the fact that Syrians constituted the largest group of asylum-seekers among industrialized countries in 2013, their number remains modest compared to the number of Syrian refugees hosted by countries in the Middle East. The total number registered or awaiting registration in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey had surpassed the 2.5 million mark at the time of writing this report.”<\/p>\n
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum<\/strong><\/p>\n