The UNHCR has released the latest figures on asylum applications and no surprise the numbers are up. Asylees are people who have left their home country, enter another country and file for asylum claiming they would be in danger if returned to their homeland. In the US asylees receive all the benefits that refugees are given and we have hundreds (thousands?) of Immigration lawyers waiting to take their cases.
GENEVA, October 22 (UNHCR) – Asylum applications in industrialized nations rose by 10 percent in the first half of this year compared to the same period in 2008, according to the UN refugee agency’s provisional statistics released today. A total of 185,000 asylum claims were filed in the opening six months of this year across 38 European countries, the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and The Republic of Korea.
Iraq remains the top country of origin of the asylum applicants (13,200 claims) for the fourth consecutive year. Afghans (12,000 claims) and Somalis (11,000 claims) are the second and third largest groups as security conditions continue to deteriorate in large parts of their home countries. The other main countries of origin are China, Serbia (including Kosovo), the Russian Federation, Nigeria, Mexico, Zimbabwe, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
As a region, Europe received 75 percent of all asylum applications although the United States remained the single largest recipient with 13 percent of all applications filed in industrialized nations (23,700, UNHCR estimate). France ranks as the second recipient nation with 10 percent of all claims (19,400), followed by Canada (18,700), the United Kingdom (17,700) and Germany, ranked fifth (12,000).