Industrialised countries saw a 17 per cent increase in asylum applications in the first half of this year, with most claimants coming from countries with long-standing displacement situations, the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR said on Tuesday.

According to the “Asylum Levels and Trends in Industrialized Countries, First Half 2011”, the main flow of refugees was from, from Afghanistan, China, Serbia and breakaway Kosovo, Iraq and Iran.

Afghans made 15,300 claims, Chinese 11,700, Serbs and Kosovars 10,300, Iraqis 10,100 and Iranians 7,600, it said.

Source : The Green Voice of Freedom