Around 7,400 people from India applied for asylum in the United States in 2017, the United Nations refugee agency said in a report on Tuesday, a day before World Refugee Day.
The number of displaced people rose by 16.2 million people in 2017 to 68.5 million, a record for the fifth straight year. The crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the war in South Sudan, and the movement of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar to Bangladesh were the main contributors to the rise in numbers. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said 40 million people were displaced in their own country.
The United States received the most new asylum requests, the report said. Salvadorans made the most applications – 49,500 – followed by Guatemalans and Hondurans. Venezuelan asylum claims in the US rose 63% to 29,900 as the country’s economic crisis continues. In May, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a “zero tolerance” policy that allows authorities to slap criminal charges on undocumented immigrants. This has led to nearly 2,000 children being separated from their parents in just six weeks. These children have been placed in government facilities or in foster care – and according to one report, are even being held in “cages”.
In India, there were 1.97 lakh refugees at the end of 2017, and 10,519 asylum seekers had pending applications.
Afghans displaced Syrians as the highest asylum-seeking nationality for the first time since 2013, submitting 1.25 lakh claims in 80 countries, the report said.
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