UNHCR: Number of asylum seekers in 2014 highest since Balkan wars of 1992

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has published a report on asylum seekers in 2014, with the largest numbers fleeing war in Syria and Iraq, armed conflicts, human rights violations, reports the Bosnian news agency Patria.

During 2014, 866,000 applications were submitted, which is 45% more compared to 2013. This is the highest figure since 1992, when a large number of refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Balkans sought refuge from war.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said that the wars in the Balkans created hundreds of thousands of refugees and asylum seekers.

Many of them found refuge in developed countries in Europe, North America and other states.

Due to the war in Syria, the number of asylum seekers increased, exceeding 150,000. Iraqis accounted for 68,700 applications, followed by Serbs from Kosovo and Eritreans.

The country that received the most asylum seekers in 2014 was Germany, with more than 173,000 applications.

Syrians make up a quarter of all asylum applications in Germany. The United States received 121,200 asylum applications, mostly from Mexico and Central American countries.

Turkey, which by the end of last year had received more than 1.5 million Syrian refugees, had 87,800 new asylum applications in 2014, mostly from Iraqis.

Sweden ranked fourth among 44 developed countries, with 75,100 applications, mostly from Syrians and Eritreans.

Italy registered 63,700 new applications in 2014, a record so far, most often submitted by residents of Mali, Nigeria and Gambia.

The Russian Federation, which is not included in this report, received about 265,400 applications for temporary asylum and 5,800 applications for refugee status from Ukrainians during 2014. At the same time, the number of Ukrainians seeking asylum in the 44 countries included in the report rose from 1,400 in 2013 to 15,700 in 2014.

The top five countries receiving the most applications, about 60%, are Germany, the USA, Turkey, Sweden and Italy.

Worldwide, since the beginning of last year, about 51.2 million people have been forcibly displaced as a result of persecution, conflict, violence or human rights violations. Of these, about 16.7 million people are refugees, and 33.3 million are internally displaced within their own country. Nearly 1.2 million are asylum seekers.