Nonetheless, the US is still one of the most desired destinations of asylum seekers.
The United States remained the main destination country for the fourth year. It accounted for 13 per cent of the claims representing an estimated 49,000 people, many of them from China.
See the UNHCR press release here and follow links to the entire report.
By the way, one of the many “nuggets from the celebration” of the Refugee Resettlement Act symposium I attended last week was about asylum. It seems that those who crafted the Refugee Act of 1980 never thought the demand for asylum would end up being so high. They figured they would have, as someone said, “a few ballet dancers seeking asylum” from time to time when they came to the US to perform.
Another “nugget from the celebration” I hadn’t gotten around to mentioning is that the big focus among refugee advocates these days is the issue of detention. They don’t want those who sneak across the border and ask for asylum to be kept in detention at all. It struck me that their bigger worry should be —who are some of these people, especially the Somalis, coming across the border? Are their intentions benign? And, how can we better take care of the refugees we have brought here legally.