As Washington ProFile reports, also in 2002, 548 citizens of Belarus, 265 citizens of Armenia, 209 citizens of Kazakhstan, 180 citizens of Azerbaijan, 139 citizens of Moldova, 112 citizens of Uzbekistan, 76 citizens of Estonia, 54 citizens of Latvia, 33 citizens of Georgia, 19 citizens of Tajikistan, 16 citizens of Kyrgyzstan, and 5 citizens of Turkmenistan tried to obtain refugee status.
Last year, 58,400 people requested political asylum in the United States. Applications from 18,900 of them were granted, while approximately 1,600 applicants were denied. Officials did not have time to consider the remaining cases.
Citizens of Armenia most often tried to obtain political asylum in the United States - they filed 1,389 such applications in total. With a similar request, 861 citizens of Russia, 312 citizens of Azerbaijan, 275 citizens of Uzbekistan, 249 citizens of Ukraine (92 approved and 6 denied), 187 citizens of Georgia, 174 citizens of Belarus, 59 citizens of Kazakhstan, 56 citizens of Latvia, 55 citizens of Estonia, 54 citizens of Kyrgyzstan, 52 citizens of Moldova, 16 citizens of Turkmenistan, and 13 citizens of Tajikistan turned to American authorities.
Curiously, residents of quite prosperous countries also asked for political asylum in the United States - Germany, France, the Netherlands, Canada, Ireland, and others.