The number of “refugees” worldwide may have dropped in the last couple of decades, but the number “welcomed” in Europe has increased.
This is what the Mediterranean tide brings in on a daily basis. Al-Hijra anyone!
Syrians, Afghans and Somalis top the list! From AP at FoxNews:
BRUSSELS – The European Union’s statistical agency says more people were granted asylum across the 28-nation bloc last year mostly because of a high influx of refugees fleeing the war in Syria.
Eurostat said Thursday the number of accepted asylum seekers rose by 17 percent to 135,700 in 2013 from 116,200 a year earlier, meaning about one in three applications was accepted out of a total of 462,000.
The biggest group of refugees that were granted asylum were some 36,000 Syrians, a quarter of the total, followed by about 16,000 Afghans and 9,700 Somalis.
Sweden, with 9.6 million inhabitants, was the most generous country in accepting asylum seekers, granting protection to 26,400 people, followed by Germany, the EU’s most populous nation, which accepted 26,100 people. France took in 16,200, and Italy 14,500.
If you haven’t treated yourself to some light (LOL!) summer reading, how about The Camp of the Saints (along with Al-Hijra)!
See our ‘invasion of Europe’ series by clicking here.
See the Department of Homeland Security’s annual flow report for 2012 (the most recent one we could find) that summarizes the numbers and where they come from of US refugees and asylees. The Office of Refugee Resettlement told us that in 2013 we took about 143,000 refugees and asylum seekers (all are eligible for welfare goodies).