Malta had the second highest number of asylum seeker applications per capita in 2005, a report drawn up by the UN refugees agency has shown.
A total of 1,170 irregular immigrants applied for asylum in Malta last year, the highest on record, in stark contrast to the vast majority of other industrialised countries which experienced a steep decline.
In fact, the 27-page UNHCR report shows that in the last five years, the number of asylum seekers arriving in all industrialised countries has fallen by half. Asylum applications in 50 countries fell sharply for the fourth year in a row in 2005, reaching their lowest level in almost two decades.
On the contrary, Malta has faced a gradual increase in asylum applications - 70 in 2000; 120 in 2001; 350 in 2002; 570 in 2003; 1,000 in 2004 and 1,170 last year - an increase of 17 per cent over the previous year.
In last year's report, for 2004, Malta had also ranked in second place for the number of refugees per capita.
The biggest number of immigrants lining up for asylum status in Malta were Somalis (490), followed by Eritreans (100). In 2004, the largest number of applicants were Eritreans (255), with Sudanese following closely behind.
Cyprus topped the list of asylum seekers per capita. Its geographical position is evidently contributing to the high figures. It received 7,770 applications in 2005 or 9.3 per 1,000 inhabitants, substantially higher than Malta's with 2.9 per 1,000.
Since 2001, applications for asylum in 50 industrialised countries have declined by 49 per cent. Last year, 336,000 asylum applications were submitted - 15 per cent fewer than in 2004.
The total number of asylum seekers arriving last year in the 38 industrialised countries, for which comparable long-term historical statistics are available, was the lowest since 1987, at 331,600.
In most individual asylum countries, the 2005 total was the lowest for many years. In Denmark and Germany, for example, the number is the lowest since 1983.
Despite a 15 per cent drop in asylum claims last year, France was still the top receiving country for the sheer number of asylum seekers, followed by the US.
The largest group of asylum seekers in 2005 was from Serbia and Montenegro, which includes asylum seekers from Kosovo. Of the 10 leading asylum-seeker nationalities, Iraqis and Haitians rose the sharpest in 2005, both by 27 per cent, while the number of asylum seekers from Afghanistan and Turkey continued to fall steadily.
"With the numbers of asylum seekers at a record low, industrialised countries are now in a position to devote more attention to improving the quality of their asylum systems, from the point of view of protecting refugees, rather than cutting numbers," said UN High Commissioner for Refugees, António Guterres.
The situation in tiny Malta is different, as the figures show so starkly. The government embarked on a systematic campaign to try and get help from its EU counterparts. On average, the 10 new EU states registered a reduction of 35 per cent in the number of asylum applications between 2004 and last year.