UNHCR: Asylum Trends, First half 2014 – Levels and Trends in Industrialized Countries
September 2014 – 36 pages
[Editor’s abstract for media release and report content]
This report summarizes patterns and trends in the number of individual asylum claims submitted in Europe and selected non-European countries during the first six months of 2014. The data in this report are based on information available as of 3 September 2014, unless otherwise indicated.

These data cover the 38 European and six non-European States that currently provide monthly asylum statistics to UNHCR. Figures are mostly based on official asylum statistics, reflecting national laws and procedures.
UNHCR’s reports on asylum applications in industrialized countries are normally published twice annually.

War, armed conflict, and human rights concerns in a number of countries – notably the Syrian Arab Republic and Ukraine – are among the principal reasons for the upsurge in the number of  asylum-seekers in industrialized countries observed during the first half of 2014. An estimated 330,700 new asylum applications were recorded between January and June 2014, some 64,300 claims or 24 per cent more than during the corresponding period of 2013 (266,300 claims). This figure is almost identical to the figures recorded during the preceding six months of July through December 2013 (328,100).

“We are clearly into an era of growing conflict,” said UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres. “The global humanitarian system is already in great difficulty. The international community needs to prepare their populations for the reality that, in the absence of solutions to conflict, more and more people are going to need refuge and care in the coming months and years. Unfortunately, it is not clear that the resources and the access to asylum will be available to help them.”

Despite the net overall increase in new claims shown in the report, more than two thirds of these were in just six countries – Germany, the United States, France, Sweden, Turkey and Italy.

The number of people applying for refugee status in the 44 industrialized countries covered by the report is just one element in the global picture of forced displacement from wars and conflict. Worldwide, 51.2 million were forcibly displaced as of the end of 2013. Most are either internally displaced within their own countries, or are hosted as refugees in states bordering onto war zones.

The full Asylum Trends report is available here.