Chapter 4
By country of origin
In recent years, Venezuela has become the
largest source country of new asylum claims. An
average of one thousand Venezuelans applied
for refugee status annually in the early years of
the last decade. This number rose in the past 2-3
years to exceed 341,000 in 2018 and 430,000 in
2019. Venezuelans are leaving their country due
to several factors, including violence, persecution,
and the political and economic crises.
In the last decade, Syrians submitted the largest
number of asylum applications, lodging nearly 1.4
million new claims all over the world, highlighting
the global scale of this ongoing tragedy. Half of
the claims were registered in 2015 and 2016.
Afghans accounted for the second highest number
of applications – 1.1 million worldwide. As in the
case of Syrian asylum-seekers, half were lodged in
2015 and 2016, mostly in Europe.
Other major source countries of new asylum
applications over the last decade include Iraq,
Ukraine, the DRC and Eritrea.
Figure 18 | Major source countries of new asylum applications | 2010-2019*
Syria
1.3
Afghanistan
0.1
1.0
Venezuela
0.1
0.5
Iraq
0.4
0.8
0.6
Ukraine
0.5
DRC
Eritrea
0.4
Nigeria
0.3
Pakistan
0.3
Somalia
0.3
0.0
0.3
0.6
0.8
1.1
1.4
Asylum applications (in millions)
* Based on reporting by individuals and cases. One asylum case may include more than one individual.
2010-2018
UNHCR > GLOBAL TRENDS 2019
2019
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