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Millions in asylum claim backlog

Over three million asylum-seekers are waiting for a decision

Co-founder, former CEO, and editor

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

Co-founder, former CEO, and editor

    LONDON

    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:

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