Asylum requests to West drop to near 20-yr low

Asylum applications lodged in 50 industrialised countries fell sharply for a fourth year in a row to 336,000 claims in 2005, according to provisional annual figures, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said. This was 15 percent lower than the previous year.

In Europe -- where far-right parties in some countries have whipped up fears over a flood of refugees -- the number of asylum seekers last year was the lowest since 1988, it added.

"These figures show that talk in the industrialized countries of a growing asylum problem does not reflect the reality," UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said in a statement.

"Indeed, industrialized countries should be asking themselves whether by imposing ever tighter restrictions on asylum seekers they are not closing their doors to men, women and children fleeing persecution," added Guterres, a former Portuguese prime minister.

The total number of asylum seekers arriving last year in 38 Western countries for which comparable historical statistics are available was the lowest since 1987, according to the UNHCR.