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Geneva: Twice as many Iraqis applied for asylum in developed countries in 2007 compared to the year before, increasing the number of new asylum seekers worldwide for the first time since 2002, the United Nations refugee agency said on Tuesday.
In a detailed report, the UNHCR said the number of formal asylum seekers from Iraq more than doubled to 45,200 last year, making up the largest proportion of the 338,000 applications received by 43 industrialised states around the world.
The figures, mainly applications to the European Union, United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, represent only 1 per cent of the estimated 4.5 million Iraqis who have been uprooted by the conflict.
Some 2 million Iraqis have sought refuge in neighbouring countries such as Syria and Jordan, and an estimated 2.5 million have been driven from their homes but remain inside the country, which had a population of 27 million before the 2003 invasion.
At nearly 60,000 a year, Iraqi asylum applications were higher in the years preceding the US-led invasion to oust Saddam Hussein.
Also on the rise were asylum claims from citizens of Russia, mainly people fleeing Chechnya, the UNHCR said, where the Russian army has been fighting separatist rebels for over a decade.
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