Malta's refugees double in one year

Malta's population of refugees and asylum seekers last year almost doubled from the year before, according to figures published by the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR).

According to the agency's annual year-end statistics for 2004, released ahead of World Refugee Day commemorated yesterday, Malta is one of the most badly hit countries in the world on a per capita basis.

While at the beginning of last year the number of refugees in Malta stood at 895, the figure shot up dramatically to 1,558 by last December.

At the same time there were still another 141 pending applications, 541 per cent more than a year earlier when the number of pending applications amounted to only 22.

Last year all new refugees arrived in Malta spontaneously, the report says. In total there were 997 new applications for the granting of asylum and refugee status. Of these applications, 49 were recognised on purely asylum grounds while another 549 were recognised on humanitarian grounds. Two hundred and sixty applications were rejected.

Many EU countries such as The Netherlands, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden reduced their refugee population in 2004. Luxembourg, Poland and Cyprus increased their refugee population although at a slower rate than Malta.

The UNHCR said that while the global number of refugees fell four per cent in 2004 to 9.2 million, the lowest total in almost a quarter of a century, the numbers of internally displaced and stateless people remain high.

The total number of people of concern rose to 19.2 million from 17 million the previous year. This figure includes refugees, asylum seekers, returnees, stateless people and a portion of the world's internally displaced people.

"Behind every number is a human being," said Antonio Guterres, who began work as the 10th UN High Commissioner for Refugees last week.

"While we can be glad there has been a reduction in refugees and an increase in the number of returnees, we must remember that each one of those 19.2 million men, women and children has suffered the trauma of displacement - as have many millions of internally displaced people who are not currently being cared for."

An almost unprecedented level of voluntary repatriation was largely responsible for the decline in the global refugee number for a fourth year in succession, noted Mr Guterres. In all, more than five million refugees have been able to return to their home countries since the end of 2001 - 3.5 million of them to Afghanistan alone.