Monday, December 11, 2006

Asylum applications by Georgian citizens -- 1990-2005

How many Georgians have applied for asylum in the last 15 years? According to UNHCR data, about 66,600 Georgian citizens have applied. Interestingly, the numbers have kept going up:

1992 -- 350
1994 -- 2,504
1996 -- 3,099
1998 -- 4,108
2000 -- 3,904
2001 -- 6,264
2002 -- 8,422
2004 -- 8,934
2005 -- 7,051

So no reduction after the Rose Revolution.

How do they distribute across the countries? Germany received almost 20,000 applications. France is next with about 7,300 applicants, followed by Austria with 7,000 and then Switzerland (4600), and the Netherlands (4100).

By 2005, Greece received the highest number of applications (almost 1900, up from 323 in the previous year). The reasons for this are not entirely clear to me yet. One explanation is that other countries may have toughened their view of Georgian applicants (Germany had its lowest number of applications since 1993).

I have a spreadsheet as hardcopy, and can try to make it available upon request.

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