Zaatari Refugee Camp, Jordan – August 2013. Photo: Photo: Foreign & Commonwealth Office / flickr CC.
QARN highlights UN report on asylum seekers
Sharp rise in claims for asylum during the last year revealed
The sharp rise in claims for asylum during the last year revealed in a new report issued by the United Nations refugee agency has been highlighted by the Quaker Asylum and Refugee Network (QARN) According to the report – Asylum Trends 2013 – some 612,700 people applied for asylum in North America, Europe, East Asia and the Pacific last year. This represents the highest total for any year since 2001. The figures are for asylum claims made in forty-four industrialised countries.
Six of the top ten countries of origin for those seeking asylum are experiencing violence or conflict: Syria, Afghanistan, Eritrea, Somalia, Iraq and Pakistan.
‘There is clear evidence in these numbers of how the Syria crisis, in particular, is affecting countries and regions of the world far removed from the Middle East,’ said António Guterres, UN high commissioner for refugees.
QARN works ‘to change the way that refugees and asylum seekers – whether recognised under the UN Convention on the Status of Refugees or not – are treated and to ensure that justice and compassion are the guiding principles’.
