Blog #10: Asylum Claims Rose 20 Percent Last Year, U.N. Refugee Agency Says

In a recent report, the UN stated that escapees from the new problems arising in the Middle East and Africa, along with people fleeing chronic conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, contributed to a 20% increase in requests for asylum in industrialized countries in 2011. The report from UN refugee agency surveyed 44 countries in Europe, North America, Asia and Australia, and said that the region with the largest increase in claims for the year was Southern Europe, where over 66k people seeking asylum arrived on boats to Italy and Malta, increasing 87% from 2010. The country of origin for the largest numbers of asylum seekers is Afghanistan, rising 37% in 2011. China proved to be the number one source for asylum seekers followed by Iraq. The US was the one country that received the most applications for asylum, estimated at about 74k applications. The report also noted that South Africa, although not covered by the report, has attracted large numbers of refugees recently, not only from other African countries but Pakistan and Bangladesh also. The UN report states that although this is an indicator of the desperation created by conflict, this is not an indicator of border migration trends.
During these challenging economic times, people, coming from many underdeveloped countries, are being driven out of their homes for a multitude of different reasons. Someone is considered a refugee, as defined by the UN, as those who have a “well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion” and of course are in seek of safety. In the recent reports given by the UN, it appears as if people are actually traveling farther than usual to escape violence, economic turmoil, and war. In the past, refugee settlement areas, usually in other poor neighboring countries, have been places of extreme poverty, insanitation, unrest and have been targeted as militant recruiting grounds. Refugees and immigrants cause changes to their host country in many different ways, both economically, politically, and environmentally. In poor and fragile countries taking in refugees, the danger for destabilizing the government and the environment is more inevitable, causing devastating effects. This could be the number one reason why more industrialized countries are seeing such a significant overall increase in refugees seeking asylum.

Blog #10

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/28/world/asylum-claims-up-20-percent.html?scp=1&sq=UN%20migration&st=cse