Chapter 5
Table 4 | N
ew asylum claims registered in UNHCR offices with more than 10,000 claims* | 2014-2018
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
Turkey **
87,800
133,300
78,600
126,100
83,800
Malaysia
25,700
22,100
20,100
23,700
23,800
Egypt
10,000
21,100
28,500
27,800
23,000
Libya
2,900
100
1,900
6,600
16,300
29,100
19,400
12,000
10,600
10,400
Jordan
* Excluding appeal and review claims.
** Pertains only up to 10 September 2018.
by Nigerians with 5,100 new applications (compared
with the 25,100 in 2017).
Other countries receiving large numbers of new
asylum claims were the United Kingdom (37,500),
Mexico (29,600), Australia (28,800), Costa Rica
(28,000), Malaysia (23,800), Egypt (23,000) and the
Netherlands (20,500).
Among countries where refugee status
determination is carried out by UNHCR, the office in
Turkey continued to receive the most claims with
83,800 [Table 4]. As noted, these claims were
recorded only until 10 September 2018, when the
Government of Turkey assumed responsibility for all
applications. The UNHCR office in Malaysia received
the next highest number of new applications with
23,800, followed by Egypt (23,000),75 Libya (16,300)
and Jordan (10,400).
By nationality
For the first time, asylum claims from Venezuelans
dominated the global asylum statistics with 341,800
new claims in 2018, accounting for more than 1 in 5
claims submitted [Figure 18]. The new individual
claims are in addition to an estimated 2.6 million
Venezuelans who have fled the country, many of
whom have international protection needs but have
not sought asylum (see page 24 for more information
on the Venezuela situation). This number is a sharp
increase compared with 116,000 claims in 2017,
34,200 in 2016 and 10,200 in 2015.
By far the most Venezuelan claims were submitted in
Peru, with 190,500 new applications compared with
33,100 in 2017 – a more than five-fold increase. This
was followed by 61,600 claims submitted in Brazil,
where 17,900 were reported in 2017. There were
27,500 claims in the United States of America,
44
although the number of people is very likely to be
higher since nearly all Venezuelan claims were
affirmative applications reported as cases and can
pertain to more than one person. Other countries
that received significant claims were Spain (20,000),
Ecuador (11,400), Trinidad and Tobago (7,100), Mexico
(6,300), Panama (4,600), Costa Rica (2,900),
Colombia (2,600), Chile (1,700) and Canada (1,300).
Afghanistan was the next most common country of
origin for individual new asylum applications in 2018,
with 107,500 claims lodged in 80 countries. As has
been the case since 2016, Turkey received the most
claims in 2018 with 53,000 registered. This was
followed by Greece which received 11,800 claims –
a significant increase on the 7,500 in 2017. A similar
increase was seen in France, from 6,600 in 2017 to
10,300 in 2018. In contrast, there has been a sharp
decline in Germany from 127,000 new claims in 2016
to 16,400 in 2017 and 9,900 in 2018. New Afghan
claims for asylum were received in India (4,500),
Austria (2,100), the United Kingdom (2,100), Pakistan
(1,800), Switzerland (1,100), Bulgaria (1,100) and
Belgium (1,000).
Asylum claims from Syrians were the third most
common, in contrast to previous years. There were
106,200 new claims in 2018, a quarter of the peak
number of 409,900 lodged in 2015 and a small
decline on the 117,100 submitted in 2017. The number
of new individual claims is in addition to new arrivals
in countries where Syrians receive prima facie or
group recognition such as Jordan and Lebanon; or in
Turkey, where they were granted protection under
the Government’s Temporary Protection regime.
Excluding these countries, individual asylum claims
75 As of 31 December 2018, an additional 11,200 individuals have
been awaiting registration with UNHCR after an initial visit to
UNHCR.
unhcr > Global trends 2018