10,500 Nigerians sought asylum in 2011, says UN

[MrVan]

Some 10,500 Nigerians sought asylum last year in industrialised countries compared to 9,500 in 2010, according to a report released by the UN refugee agency.

The report, made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja, ranked Nigeria 10th on the list of asylum claimants to the world's richest countries in 2011.

Afghans topped the list of global asylum claims in 2011, followed by Chinese and Iraqis.

Overall the report, which surveyed asylum applications to 44 industrialised countries, found that applications rose to 441,300 in 2011 from 368,000 the previous year.

The figure represents a 20 per cent increase and UNHCR said it was the highest since 2003.

The figures of Nigerians seeking asylum varied from country to country.

According to the report, 2,876 Nigerians claimed asylum in Italy in 2011, compared

to 1,165 in 2010.

In other figures, Nigerians filed 1,303 applications for asylum in Switzerland while UK received 1,055.

In the U.S, a total of 257 applications were received from Nigeria asylum seekers in 2011.

Reflecting turmoil in West Africa and in the Arab world, the UN report notes that asylum seekers

from Côte d'Ivoire, Libya, Syria and other countries reached record levels in 2011 with 16,700 more

applications than in 2010. NAN

Vanguard Nigeria