Asylum Trends 2013 report shows asylum applications in 2013 were up 28 per cent over 2012, with Syria now the main country of origin
A United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) report published today says that asylum applications in industrialised countries are at their highest levels since 2001.
You can read the full report, Asylum Trends 2013, here.
In total, UNHCR says there were an estimated 612,700 asylum applications registered in 2013 in the group of 44 industrialised countries looked at in the report, up 28 per cent over 2012.
According to UNHCR, Afghanistan had been the world's principal country of origin for asylum-seekers, but is now third behind Syria and the Russian Federation.
Iraq and Serbia/Kosovo make up the top 5 countries.
With 109,600 new asylum applications during 2013, Germany was the largest single recipient of new asylum claims among the group of 44 countries. The figure is a full 70 per cent higher than 2012.
The USA was second with 88,400 claims, and UNHCR notes that 2013 was the first year for eight years that the USA was not the largest recipient of new asylum claims.
The UK was ranked sixth with 29,200 asylum applications received during 2013, up 4 per cent compared to 2012. UNHCR says that this is mainly as a result of the increase in numbers of Syrian, Albanian and Eritrean asylum-seekers.
Canada, however, saw a big drop in claims, down from 20,500 in 2012 to 10,400 in 2013.
UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres said: "There is clear evidence in these numbers of how the Syria crisis in particular is affecting countries and regions of the world far removed from the Middle East … This makes it all the more important that refugees and the communities receiving them are being properly and robustly supported."