According to a newly released chart, trailing South Africa as asylum seekers' destinations are United States, France, Malaysia, Canada, United Kingdom, Sweden, Ethiopia and Germany.
A UNHCR's provisional statistical report released in March, which measured asylum levels and trends in 44 industrialised nations, had listed United States as the main destination country for asylum-seekers for the fourth year, many of whom are from China. Next to United States in that provisional report were France, Canada, United Kingdom and Germany respectively.
The provisional statistical report, released in March, showing main nationalities of asylum-seekers in 2009, had listed Nigerians, Afghans, Iraqis and Somalis as top on the list of asylum-seekers. Also top on the chart of asylum seekers, according to the provisional report, are people of the Russian Federation, Chinese and Serbians.
That provisional report said nationals of the seven countries represent 40 per cent of asylum seekers while the remaining 60 per cent come from other nationalities across the globe. The three countries (Afganistan, Iraq and Somalia) that top the list released in March are considered dangerous places to live in. Suicide bomb attacks are rampant in Afghanistan and Iraq, while warlords and pirates reign in Somalia.
The newly released annual Global Trend report said "on the rise is the number of new individual asylum claims, which grew last year to nearly 1 million. Receiving more than 222,000 new claims in 2009, South Africa was the single largest asylum destination."
The annual Global Trends report also said the number of forcibly displaced persons worldwide rose to 43.3 million last year, the highest level since mid-1990s.
The new report, which reviews statistical trends and patterns of conflict-related displacements also puts the number of stateless people at the end of 2009 at 6.6 million though unofficial estimates range as high as 12 million.