联合国负责难民事务的机构说，在工业化国家申请政治庇护的案例连续5年减少的趋势在2007年出现逆转，主要原因是由于申请庇护的伊拉克人持续增多。联合国难民事务高级专员公署星期二发表报告说，2007年，在工业化国家申请政治庇护的人数上升了10%。2006年是20年来申请案例最少的一年。
联合难民公署报告说，2007年，在申请庇护的人当中最多的是伊拉克人，这已经是连续第二年。他们的人数在2006年已经几乎翻了一番。去年，有4万5千多名伊拉克人申请庇护。
联合国难民公署说，因国内冲突而流离失所的伊拉克人据估计有450万，在工业化国家寻求庇护的伊拉克人只占其中的1%。
The U.N. refugee agency says a five-year decline in asylum applications in industrialized nations was reversed in 2007, largely due to a continued rise in Iraqi asylum seekers. In a release issued Tuesday The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees reports the number of applications for refugee status in industrialized nations rose ten percent in 2007. 2006 had been the lowest for applications in 20 years.
The agency reports that Iraq asylum seekers top the list for the second year in a row in 2007 – and that number almost doubled from 2006. More than 45 thousand Iraqis applied for asylum last year.
The UNCHR says that Iraqi asylum seekers in industrialized countries make up only one percent of the estimated four-point-five million Iraqis displaced by the conflict in that nation.