News: Asylum Trends in 2014

UNHCR's latest statistical report, Asylum Trends 2014: Levels and Trends in Industrialized Countries, looks at asylum claims lodged in 38 European and six non-European countries. A total of 866,000 people applied for asylum, with Syrians remaining the top asylum-seeking group. The other main countries of origin for applicants were Iraq, Afghanistan, Serbia/Kosovo and Eritrea. The top five countries of asylum were Germany, the United States, Turkey, Sweden, and Italy.

While the number of asylum applications have indeed increased in industrialized countries, it is important to keep in mind, as this IRIN news story points out, that "these figures only represent those asylum applications made in 44 developed countries that regularly supply UNHCR with statistics. Developing countries, such as Pakistan, Iran, Lebanon and Jordan hosted 86 percent of the world’s refugee population in 2013."

This press release summarizes the main trends, and provides access to the report and Excel tables.

Reports from previous years are available here.

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