The current UNHCR report covers the third quarter of 2003 and examines the refugee situation in the 29 most representative countries from this point of view (data are provided on applications for refugee status in all industrialized countries of the world except Italy, as well as in Eastern European states). The main result of the third quarter of this year is that the total number of refugees in the world is declining rapidly, while the number of Russians fleeing their country is also growing rapidly.
In the first nine months of 2003, 321,700 people applied to the relevant authorities of 29 industrialized countries of the world for political asylum. According to UNHCR data, almost 23,700 of them were citizens of Russia. In second place was Iraq (21,600), in third – Serbia and Montenegro (18,400). Also in the top ten were Turkey, China, Afghanistan, Somalia, Nigeria, India and Pakistan.
The number of refugees from all traditionally disadvantaged countries in this sense – Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, China, Turkey – is declining rapidly. The number of Russians asking for political asylum in other countries, on the other hand, increased sharply in 2003. The dynamics are as follows: in the first quarter there were 5,019 of them, in the second – 7,711, in the third – 10,951. In total, in less than a year, 23,681 Russians fled from persecution at home (for comparison, in the same period of 2002, 14,317 Russian citizens applied for asylum). Thus, Russia confidently took first place in the number of refugees, overtaking by several thousand people all previous leaders – Iraq, Afghanistan, Serbia, Somalia, Turkey, China, India, Pakistan, Colombia and Congo.
UNHCR does not conduct detailed studies of the composition of the refugee flow from any given country. Therefore, it is difficult to determine the exact social portrait of a "fleeing person." The only thing UNHCR analysts know for sure is the nationality of the majority of Russian refugees. As the Geneva press secretary of UNHCR, Rupert Colville, said, it is mainly Chechens who flee from Russia.
Gazeta.Ru also notes some other conclusions of the latest UN report. The countries where Russian citizens are most willing to flee this year were Austria (4,907 for the current year), Poland (3,956) and the Czech Republic (3,063). As UNHCR experts admit, the number of refugees who actually arrived in these countries may be smaller, since local legislation does not prohibit a potential refugee from simultaneously filing documents for this status in another state. Thus, Russians often, just in case, file an application, for example, in the Czech Republic, and then go for the same, for example, to Germany.
The number of citizens of other post-Soviet states who filed similar petitions, on the contrary, decreased. Thus, Georgia took 14th place (5,360 of its citizens asked for political asylum), Ukraine – 18th (4,000), Armenia – 22nd (3,800), Moldova – 23rd (3,560), Azerbaijan – 33rd (2,600), Belarus – 36th (2,560).
In 2003, foreigners most often applied for asylum to the authorities of the United Kingdom and the United States. And 869 US citizens asked for political asylum in Canada.