The agency said on Tuesday applications rose 17 percent during the first half of 2011 compared with the same period in 2010, but most came from countries considered to be typical sources of asylum seekers, such as Afghanistan, where some 15,300 applicants originated.
UNHCR noted that asylum application in Japan and South Korea more than doubled, to 1,300 compared to 600 in the first half of 2010. It said the total for the year was likely to be more than double and the highest for eight years, partly reflecting crises in North Africa, the Ivory Coast and Somalia.
It put the number of asylum seekers from January to June at 420,000, up from 198,300 in the same period the previous year.
In general the main flow came, as in past years, from Afghanistan, China, Serbia and breakaway Kosovo, Iraq and Iran, according to UNHCR’s twice-yearly report, Asylum Levels and Trends in Industrialized Countries.
China was the second biggest source of claims, with 11,700 people asking to be given refuge abroad. Third was Serbia and Kosovo, with 10,300 claims, followed by Iraq (10,100) and Iran (7,600).
The agency stressed that the figures covered only applicants for refugee status, many of whom are turned down and sent back to their countries of origin, and not those eventually granted asylum.
They also do not include migrants, legal or illegal.
“2011 has been a year of displacement crises unlike any other I have seen in my time as High Commissioner,” UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said of the so-called ‘Arab Spring’ unrest that drove hundreds of thousands in Libya and Tunisia to flee their homes.
Guterres said most had fled to neighboring countries.
The UN refugee agency said it expects to see 420,000 asylum applications in rich countries for 2011, the highest number in eight years.
From January to June, the United States had far more applications than any other single industrialized country with a total of 36,400. France was next with 26,100, followed by Germany with 20,100, according to the report.
Sweden, with 12,600, was fourth and Britain — where many mainstream politicians have been demanding stricter conditions for granting asylum — was fifth with 12,200 applications.
In developed Asian countries Japan and South Korea, asylum applications also doubled but were at a much lower level, reaching 1,300 for the two together against 600 in the first half of 2010.
But Australia, which has toughened its asylum policies, and New Zealand saw a nearly 20 percent drop, from 6,300 last year for both to 5,100 in 2011, according to UNHCR.
