GENEVA — Fighting in Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and other countries has led to an increase in people requesting asylum in industrialized nations, the United Nations refugee agency said Tuesday.
Around 383,000 people applied for asylum in Europe, North America and other industrialized regions last year — 12 per cent more than in 2007, said the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
"The increase can partly be attributed to higher numbers of asylum applications by citizens of Afghanistan, Somalia and other countries experiencing turmoil or conflict," the agency said in a statement.
The United States was the top destination, receiving an estimated 49,000 new asylum demands last year, UNHCR said. The agency did not give figures about how many applications were accepted.
The U.S. was followed by Canada, which received 36,900 requests, France (35,200), Italy (31,200) and Britain (30,500).
Most of the requests, or 40,500, came from Iraqis. But demands from Afghans rose 85 per cent last year to 18,500.
Civil war and the 2001 U.S.-led invasion meant Afghanistan was one of the major sources of refugees until 2002. A spike in fighting, with 31 per cent more security incidents in 2008 compared with the previous year, has led to an increase in new asylum demands, according to UN statistics.
Asylum applications from Zimbabweans were up 82 per cent. The African nation was in deep political crisis last year with President Robert Mugabe unleashing a violent repression of opposition supporters. The former regional breadbasket now faces a hunger crisis, a cholera epidemic and shortages in gasoline, basic goods, power and water.
Asylum demands in 2008 increased by 77 per cent from Somalia, which has been ravaged by war and chaos for nearly two decades. Demands from Nigeria went up 71 per cent as violence between militants and government troops in the country's oil-rich south intensified.
Sri Lankan asylum requests increased 24 per cent last year after the government scrapped a cease-fire with Tamil rebels, renewing the civil war that has plagued the country since 1983.
Those fleeing are searching for a safe haven in more countries than before, probably because of tighter asylum policies in traditional destinations, the agency said.
Iraqi asylum applications to Sweden, for example, decreased 67 per cent as a result of Sweden's more restrictive asylum policy between 2007 and 2008. At the same time, Iraqi asylum demands nearly trebled in neighbouring Norway and increased fourfold in Finland, UNHCR said.
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