Between 2006 and last year Malta received the second highest number of asylum seekers in the industrialised world compared to the national population, a UNHCR report released yesterday shows.

The numbers, however, fell drastically last year, contributing to a dramatic decline in the number of asylum seekers reaching Southern Europe.

The report by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees pointed out that in 2010, eight Southern European countries had an average 33 per cent drop in the number of migrants, with the most significant declines seen in Malta (-94 per cent), Italy (-53 per cent) and Greece (-36 per cent).

This was offset by increases elsewhere, especially in Germany (49 per cent), Sweden (32 per cent), Denmark (30 per cent), Turkey (18 per cent), Belgium (16 per cent) and France (13 per cent).

Last year EU member states registered a total of 235,900 asylum claims, a five per cent drop from 2009. They accounted for 87 per cent of all asylum claims in Europe. With 19 applicants per 1,000 inhabitants, Malta ranked second after Cyprus, which had 24, in terms of the number of asylum seekers compared to the national population.

However, the top five main destination countries of asylum seekers last year were the US, France, Germany, Sweden, and Canada. The US (55,500) and France (47,800) were the countries with the highest numbers compared to the national economy, followed by Germany (41,300), Sweden (31,300) and Canada (23,200). Together they received more than half the asylum seekers accounted for in the report.

The overview shows a dramatic fall in the number of asylum seekers in the whole industrialised world over the last 10 years. In 2010, 358,800 asylum applications were lodged in industrialised countries, five per cent less than in 2009.

The number of applications was the fourth lowest in the last decade and almost half (42 per cent) of the 620,000 applications filed in 2001.

Most regions, including Europe, North America and North Asia, reported year-on-year declines.