Fewer seek asylum in wealthy nations

GENEVA - The number of people seeking asylum in richer countries dropped sharply for the third year in a row in 2004, hitting the lowest levels in 16 years, the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR reported.

Overall, numbers fell by an average of 22 per cent across 38 developed countries, including 19 per cent in the 25-nation European Union, 26 per cent in North America, and 28 per cent in New Zealand and Australia, compared with 2003, the agency said.

In European countries, where asylum has become a big political issue, requests were down by 33 per cent in Britain, by 30 per cent in Germany and a quarter in Sweden.

In Britain, where immigration is becoming a focus of debate ahead of parliamentary elections expected in May, numbers applying for asylum fell to levels of the mid-1990s, with a 66 per cent drop in two years.

Afghan asylum seekers, totalling 50,000 in 2001, were now down to 8800.

"This is a clear reflection of the impact a concerted effort to improve conditions in the region of origin can have on numbers seeking asylum further afield," said Raymond Hall, who directs the agency's Europe Bureau.

The UNHCR said numbers of Iraqi asylum seekers had fallen by 80 per cent since 2002 and totalled only 9400 last year.

The total seeking asylum in Britain last year was 40,200 against 60,050 in 2003 and a peak of 103,000 in 2002, when the numbers of Afghans and Iraqis were at their height.

In Germany, the 2004 figure was 35,610, the lowest since 1984, against 50,560 in 2003 and 71,130 in 2002.

The figures were contained in the annual report on the issue from the UNHCR.

The new statistics "should reduce the pressure by politicians, media and the public to make asylum systems more and more restrictive ... ", Hall said. "In most industrialised countries, it should simply not be possible to claim there is a huge asylum crisis any more."

The only large country to see a rise in asylum applications was France, up last year to 61,600 from 59,700 in 2003. Nations with small numbers of applicants, such as Poland, Finland and Cyprus, had increases. France's rise made it the top destination ahead of the United States - 52,400 against nearly 74,000 in 2002. Britain was third and Germany fourth.

Leaving home

* Russia provided the largest single group of asylum seekers - a total of 30,100.

* They were mainly from Chechnya, where Russian troops battle separatist insurgents.

* The next largest group seeking asylum in 2004 were from Serbia and Montenegro.

* Many of them were from the Kosovo province which is under international administration.

- REUTERS