Highest number of asylum applications submitted from Pakistan in 2014: report

Over 26,000 Pakistanis applied for asylum last year, says UNHCR

GENEVA: Over 26,000 applications were submitted for asylum from Pakistan in 2014, the highest-ever number of such applications on record from the country, making it the sixth largest source of asylum seekers.

According to a report published by the UNHCR titled “Asylum Trends 2014”, as many as 26,300 applications were submitted by asylum seekers in Pakistan, which is slightly over 4% higher than 25,200 applications in 2013. Although the increase was nominal, just 4.3% higher than previous year's figure, as compared to global increase of approximately 45% last year, it was the fourth consecutive annual increase for the country.

Read: UN slams Sri Lanka for deporting Pakistani asylum seekers

Request for asylum to Italy from Pakistanis increased by more than 100% from 3,000 claims in 2013 to 7,100 last year. Meanwhile the number of Pakistanis applying for asylum in Hungary has decreased significantly from over 3,000 claims in 2013 to just 300 last year.

Besides Italy, Germany and United Kingdom were the other major destination for asylum seekers from Pakistan with 4,000 and 3,900 applications, respectively.

Asylum seekers in the West highest since Bosnia war: UNHCR

Wars in Syria and Iraq drove the number of people requesting asylum in industrialized countries to a 22-year high last year, the United Nations said on Thursday, appealing for Western nations to open their doors to more refugees.

An estimated 866,000 asylum-seekers lodged claims in 2014, a 45 per cent rise from the year before and the highest figure since the start of the war in Bosnia, when the all-time high of nearly 900,000 was recorded, the UN refugee agency said.

"Today, the surge in armed conflicts around the world presents us with similar challenges, in particular the dramatic situation in Syria. Our response has to be just as generous now as it was then," said UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres.

Some 3.9 million Syrian refugees taken in by Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan and Iraq don't figure in the statistics in its "Asylum Trends 2014" report.

Read: Illegal immigrants smuggled out of UK and then back to avoid deportation

Syrians accounted for nearly 150,000 applications for asylum in 44 industrialized countries last year, one in every five claims, it said.

Iraqis placed second with 68,700 requests, almost doubling the 2013 figure, "a reflection of the calamity and the violence that is taking place in Iraq right now and over the past half year," UNHCR spokesperson Melissa Fleming told a news briefing.

Afghans formed the third largest group, followed by citizens of Serbia and Kosovo, and Eritreans, the agency said.

Germany topped the list as the industrialized country receiving the largest number of asylum applications, 173,000, with Syrians accounting for one-quarter of all claims, it said.

The United States came second, receiving an estimated 121,200 applications, mostly people fleeing drug gang violence in Mexico and Central America.

Turkey - host to 1.7 million Syrian refugees under a temporary protection regime - received 87,800 asylum requests last year, mainly Iraqis who fled after Islamic State forces seized large swathes of their homeland last June.

"Most Iraqis are fleeing to Turkey," Fleming said. "If you just look at Syrians, it's Germany and Sweden that are taking in most of the Syrian asylum-seekers in Europe."

Italy, the destination of many boatloads of people from Africa and the Middle East crossing the Mediterranean, received 63,700 asylum applications, fifth highest worldwide.

"Most of the people who land don't stay in Italy but make their way to other countries in Europe," Fleming said.

Australia registered a 24 per cent drop in requests, with fewer than 9,000 in 2014, the UNHCR said, noting its tougher immigration policies.