Sweden — the fourth largest asylum country among industrialized countries
The number of asylum seekers that have come to the industrialized world has decreased to nearly half the level since the start of the millennium, according to a report from UNHCR. While the number of asylum seekers is decreasing in many countries it has been increasing in some, among those Sweden, which is the fourth largest asylum country in the report.
The UNHCR report Asylum Levels and Trends in Industrialized Countries by 2010, includes 44 countries *. According to the report, industrialized countries together received 358, 800 asylum applications in 2010 - a reduction of 42 per cent compared with 2001, when the same countries received nearly 620,000 asylum applications.
Decreasing in many countries
According to the report, fewer people apply for asylum in Europe, especially in Southern Europe. Last year, the number of asylum applications decreased in Malta (- 94%), Italy (- 53%) and Greece (- 36%) compared to 2009. In the Nordic countries, the number of asylum seekers in Norway and Finland in 2010 dropped by 42 and 32 percent compared with the year before.
But increasing in some
At the same time, the number of persons seeking asylum is increasing in some countries. In 2010, the number of asylum seekers increased in Germany (+ 49%), Sweden (+ 32%), Denmark (+ 30%), Turkey (+ 18%), Belgium (+ 16%) and France (+ 13%).
According to the UNHCR report, the five countries, which received the largest number of asylum applications in 2010 were; United States (55,500), France (47,800), Germany (41,300), Sweden (31,800) and Canada 23,200). These five receiving countries accounted for more than half (56%) of all asylum applications last year.
Most asylum seekers came from Serbia
The largest groups of asylum-seekers included in the report, came from Serbia (28,900), Afghanistan (24,800), China (21,600), Iraq (20, 100) and the Russian Federation (18,900).
* The 44 countries covered by the UNHCRs report Asylum Levels and Trends in Industrialized Countries by 2010,
are the 27 member countries of the EU and Albania, Australia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Croatia, Iceland, Japan, Republic of Korea, Liechtenstein, Montenegro, New Zealand, Norway, Serbia, Switzerland, Turkey, United States and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
Page updated: 2011-04-15
Migrationsverket
