CHAPTER 5 Table 3 | New asylum claims registered in UNHCR offices with more than 10,000 claims* | 2013-2016 2013 2014 2015 2016 Turkey** 44,800 87,800 133,300 78,600 Egypt*** 10,800 10,000 21,100 28,500 Malaysia 53,600 25,700 22,100 20,100 Jordan 6,700 29,100 19,400 12,000 * Excluding appeal and review claims. ** This figure includes asylum-seekers registered with UNHCR as well as those who have been pre-registered but who are pending official registration with UNHCR. *** Includes appeal claims in 2013. 2016. While claims from people from Zimbabwe remained the most numerous (8,000), this was less than half the number received the previous year (17,800) and substantially fewer than in 2009 (149,500). During 2016, South Africa continued to receive asylum applications from people coming from farther away, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo (5,300), Ethiopia (4,800, Nigeria (3,300), Bangladesh (2,800), and Somalia (1,600). UNHCR offices registered 208,100 individual asylum applications in 2016, of which 197,800 were new, 8,300 on appeal, and 2,000 for review. This overall number constitutes a significant decline compared with recent years (Table 3). The office in Turkey has continued to receive most new requests, although again far fewer than in 2015. The UNHCR office in Egypt received the next highest number of new applications with 28,500, nearly three times the number received in 2014, followed by Malaysia (20,100), Jordan (12,000), and Syria (9,700). By nationality Asylum claims from Syrians continued to dominate the global asylum statistics, as in the previous three years (Figure 18). In 2016 there were 347,600 new asylum claims, a decline from the particularly high number of 409,900 claims lodged in 2015. However, Syrians still account for a historically high proportion of all new asylum claims at 18 per cent, compared with 12 per cent in 2014. 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. 42 Excluding these countries, individual asylum claims from Syrians were lodged in 105 countries, mostly in Europe. Germany received the most claims with 266,300, followed by Greece (26,600), which experienced a dramatic increase in claims from Syrians (3,300 in 2014). In addition, Austria (8,600), France (6,100), Hungary (4,700), Sweden (4,700), and Spain (3,100) all received large numbers of claims for asylum from Syrians. Claims for asylum from Syrians generally are successful, with global Total Protection Rates (formerly known as Total Recognition Rate) above 90 per cent. 60 Afghanistan was the next most common country of origin for individual new asylum applications in 2016, with 237,800 claims lodged in 74 countries. In contrast to 2015, Germany received the most applications (127,000), a fourfold increase from the 31,400 claims it received in 2015. Germany thus replaced Turkey, where the number of claims received fell from 63,400 in 2015 to 34,800. Austria likewise had a substantial increase in asylum claims from Afghans with 11,500 claims in 2016, followed by Hungary (10,800) and France (6,100). Pakistan also continued to receive new Afghan claims for asylum, with 4,400 in 2016. Protection rates for Afghans varied widely. The rates in Germany and Sweden were lower, with 60 per cent positive decisions in Germany (for all forms of protection) and 45 per cent in Sweden. Pakistan had a positive decision rate of 41 per cent for asylum claims from Afghans. 60 UNHCR uses two rates to compute the proportion of refugee claims accepted. The Refugee Recognition Rate is the proportion of asylum-seekers accorded refugee status out of the total number of substantive decisions (Convention status, complementary protection, and rejected cases). The Total Protection Rate is the proportion of asylum-seekers accorded refugee status or a complementary form of protection by the total number of substantive decisions (formerly referred to as Total Recognition Rate or TRR). Non-substantive decisions are, to the extent possible, excluded from both calculations. For the purposes of global comparability, UNHCR uses only these two rates and does not report rates calculated by national authorities. UNHCR > GLOBAL TRENDS 2016