New Delhi
19 June 2005
Fewer Indians are seeking asylum today. There is a 50 per cent
drop in the number of asylum-seekers from India between 2003 and now, says a UNHCR
statistical report on global refugee trends. There has been a similar decline in the
number of refugees (excluding Tibetans and Sri Lankan Tamils) living in India.
The European Union, Australia, Canada and Austria, which used to be the favourite
destinations for asylum-seekers from India, have registered an appreciable drop. The
EU, which attracted 2,432 Indians in early 2003, has registered a 50 per cent decrease
with only 1,220 Indians wanting to go there till May 2005.
The report prepared by the United Nations High Commissioner of Refugees states that
among the leading countries of origin, those recording a strong decline in the number of
asylum applications included India. In early 2003, as many as 3,385 Indians had applied
for asylum. This number has dropped to 1,701 in May this year.
"If the number of asylum seekers from India has dropped, it would mean that conditions
in India have improved. It should be kept in mind that asylum seekers in the West also,
in many cases, include economic migrants and in that case, if the number has dropped,
than conditions or opportunities here in India have improved," said an official.
The changing political situation in the country could perhaps explain the drop. In the
early 1990s there could have been many people fleeing from Kashmir and even Punjab
so political events of that time are of direct relevance to the number of asylum-
seekers."Obviously things have changed since then," the official observed.
Another reason as to why the number of asylum-seekers from India could have
decreased between 2003 and 2005 is because many countries have put India on a list of
"safe" countries, which would then mean that it is not usually a refugee-producing
country. The UK did this a couple of months ago.
Similarly, the number of refugees recognised by UNHCR in India has declined from 1993
to 2002. There were 25,335 refugees registered in 1993. That number fell by eight
thousand to 17,179 in 1998. From 12,746 in 2002, the number of refugees registered with
UNHCR till May this year is 11,124.
A large number of refugees have been resettled from India to a third country during that
period, which is also a factor that explains the overall decline in numbers from 1993 to
2002. According to the UN refugee agency, the global number of refugees also fell four
per cent -- the lowest since 1980.
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