In the first five months of this year, the Refugee Commissioner received 494 applications, with about 70 per cent being granted refugee or humanitarian protection status, according to the National Office of Statistics.

As millions yesterday marked World Refugee Day, the NSO released figures that show that of 3,576 illegal immigrants who arrived in Malta between 2002 and last year, an average of 85 per cent came from Africa.

In this two-year period Malta granted refugee or humanitarian protection status to 53 per cent of all asylum applicants, emerging as the country with the highest acceptance rate in Europe.

Last year marked the largest number of applications reaching the Refugee Commissioner with 994 applications. This number also includes pending applications brought over from the previous year.

Over a longer time span, between January 2002 and last month, almost 90 per cent of the grants were given as humanitarian protection.

A number of non-governmental organisations in Malta are involved in providing aid to refugees and asylum seekers. Last year, almost 84 per cent of their total workforce consisted of volunteers, the majority of which were women.

There is a pattern of negative balance in the financial performance of these NGOs and between 2000 and 2004, with the exception of 2002, where a large donation was granted to a particular NGO. In 2004, NGO expenditure exceeded income by 15 per cent.