Refugees in Italy: 11,000 have claimed asylum in Italy this year

Almost 11 thousand (10,972) asylum applications have been submitted for refugees in Italy from 1 January to 12 June 2020. Most of the applicants are from Asia (40%), Africa (37%), America (17%) and Europe (6%).

In terms of countries of origin, Pakistan leads with 18% of the applications followed by Nigeria with 10%.

Most of the people who have applied for refugee status in Italy this year are men (76% of the applicants) while women submitted 24% of the applications.

Most of the applicants (62%) are aged between 18 and 34, 13% are children from 0 to 13 years old, 3% are minors between 14 and 17 years old.

Since 1 January 2020, taking into account the limitations imposed in the acute phase of the Covid-19 emergency, the National Commission for the Right to Asylum, which provides data on the occasion of World Refugee Day, has deliberated on 21,144 applications.

What is the global trend?

UNHCR’s annual Global Trends report shows that an unprecedented 79.5 million were displaced as of the end of 2019. UNHCR has not seen a higher total.

Migrants in Italy: Nigerians said to have drowned at sea bound for Italy

The report also notes diminishing prospects for refugees when it comes to hopes of any quick end to their plight. In the 1990’s, on average 1.5 million refugees were able to return home each year. Over the past decade that number has fallen to around 385,000, meaning that growth in displacement is today far outstripping solutions.

“We are witnessing a changed reality in that forced displacement nowadays is not only vastly more widespread but is simply no longer a short-term and temporary phenomenon,” said UN High Commissioner for Refugee Filippo Grandi. “People cannot be expected to live in a state of upheaval for years on end, without a chance of going home, nor a hope of building a future where they are. We need a fundamentally new and more accepting attitude towards all who flee, coupled with a much more determined drive to unlock conflicts that go on for years and that are at the root of such immense suffering.”

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UNHCR’s Global Trends report shows that of the 79.5 million who were displaced at the end of last year, 45.7 million were people who had fled to other areas of their own countries. The rest were people displaced elsewhere, 4.2 million of them being people awaiting the outcome of asylum requests, while 29.6 million were refugees and others forcibly displaced outside their country.