Who is an asylum-seeker? - unhcr

IV
Origin of asylum-seekers
In 2011, people from 200 different countries or territories submitted asylum claims in one of the
44 countries presented in this report. Slightly less than half of all asylum applications were
submitted by individuals from Asia (45%). Africa was the second most important source continent
(27% of all claims), followed by Europe (15%), and the Americas (8%). (20) The country of origin
of some 19,500 asylum-seekers was unknown. All major source regions of asylum applications
showed either an increase or remained stable in 2011. Because significantly fewer people
from Serbia (and Kosovo: S/RES/1244 (1999)) and The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
requested refugee status in 2011, Europe was the only continent to show a decrease as a source
region of asylum applications in 2011 (-9%).
An Afghan asylum-seeking
family in the Radauti
Reception Centre in Radauti,
Romania.
© UnhcR / B. SZAnDELSZKy
Out of the 40 main
a S Y l u m - s e e k e r
nationalitieS, 32
registered a rise during
2011 amounting to 68,000
claims. This is significantly more than
in 2010 when 17 asylum-seeker nationalities
recorded an increase. The eight
nationalities registering a decline in
2011 submitted a total of 14,000 claims
less than in 2010. Among the major
countries of origin of asylum-seekers,
significant increases were registered
from Tunisia (+769%), Pakistan (+66%),
Mexico (+62%), and Afghanistan (+34%).
Conversely, of the eight nationalities
that recorded a decrease in 2011 as
compared to 2010, only two registered
a drop of more than 10 per cent: Serbia
TABLE 4
Distribution of asylum claims
by region of origin
Countries 2008 2009 2010 2011
Africa 29.9% 28.4% 25.7% 26.7%
Americas 10.9% 8.8% 7.8% 8.0%
Asia 44.8% 45.1% 45.3% 45.4%
Europe 12.7% 15.4% 19.2% 14.6%
Oceania 0.1% 0.1% 0.2% 0.1%
Unknown * 1.5% 2.2% 1.9% 5.2%
* Includes stateless asylum-seekers.
(and Kosovo: S/RES/1244 (1999)) (-28%)
and The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
(-11%).
Afghanistan, China, Iraq, Serbia (and
Kosovo: S/RES/1244 (1999)) and Pakistan
were the five top source countries of
asylum-seekers in the 44 industrialized
countries in 2011. This is comparable to
2010, when Serbia, Afghanistan, China,
Iraq, and the Russian Federation were
the top-ranking source countries.
In 2011, Afghanistan again became
the main country of origin of asylumseekers
in industrialized countries.
20 The geographical regions used are those of the UN Statistics Division (http://unstats.un.org/unsd/methods/m49/m49.htm)
14 Asylum Levels and Trends in Industrialized Countries - 2011 Asylum Levels and Trends in Industrialized Countries - 2011 15