1. Home
  2. Africa

Millions in asylum claim backlog

Over three million asylum-seekers are waiting for a decision

An extended family of Afghan asylum-seekers, newly arrived on Greece’s Lesvos Island, wait on the beach for police to register them. From here, they will continue onto Athens. G. Moutafis/UNHCR

The latest refugee and asylum figures, released by UNHCR today, show the global population of refugees rising to 16.1 million at the end of 2015.

(This figure excludes Palestine refugees.)

Africa, Asia and Europe all saw increases in refugee registrations, but Europe's "crisis" should be seen in perspective: 

Europe has not yet processed all the applications by asylum-seekers that have arrived in the last year or two, and has about one million cases yet to consider, about one-third of the global total caseload. 

Even so, of the global backlog of 3.2 million asylum applications, Europe is by no means exceptional, as today's figures for UNHCR show:

Share this article

Get the day’s top headlines in your inbox every morning

Starting at just $5 a month, you can become a member of The New Humanitarian and receive our premium newsletter, DAWNS Digest.

DAWNS Digest has been the trusted essential morning read for global aid and foreign policy professionals for more than 10 years.

Government, media, global governance organisations, NGOs, academics, and more subscribe to DAWNS to receive the day’s top global headlines of news and analysis in their inboxes every weekday morning.

It’s the perfect way to start your day.

Become a member of The New Humanitarian today and you’ll automatically be subscribed to DAWNS Digest – free of charge.

Become a member of The New Humanitarian

Support our journalism and become more involved in our community. Help us deliver informative, accessible, independent journalism that you can trust and provides accountability to the millions of people affected by crises worldwide.

Join